LIFE AMONG THE B ATT AS OF SUMATRA. m 



children, till they have households of their own, take their meals with 

 their parents. At meals the whole family sit around the rice-pots. 

 They formerly used leaves for plates, but they now generally have 

 European plates. As a rule, they eat immediately from the hand, 

 which is previously washed in a vessel of water kept ready for the 

 purpose. The nice point in eating consists in not allowing the finger- 

 tips to touch the lips, but in letting the rice drop from the fingers into 

 the hollow of the hand just before it is given to the mouth. 



The Batta men do not always begin their day with breakfast. In 

 the busy season of rice-culture they often have a couple of hours' 

 work to do in the rice-field. If the man is wealthy enough to have a 

 buffalo, he has to drive him all around and over the field between the 

 rows, so as to destroy the weeds by treading them down into the soft 

 mud. It is most convenient to do this early in the morning, as the 

 buffaloes are driven from the yard to the pasture. If the man has no 

 buffalo, he has to dig at the weeds laboriously with his hoe. The buf- 

 falo is the principal domestic animal of the Battas, and is kept chiefly 

 for treading out the rice-fields. The value of the animal is regulated 

 by the length of his horns, and this is measured by comparison of the 

 length of his owner's arm from the forefinger. If the horns are long 

 enough to reach to the arm-pits on the other side, the animal corre- 

 sponds with the Batta equivalent for " thorough-bred." 



The sugar-palm affords the common drink of the people, which 

 they call tunak, and of which a single tree, if properly taken care of, 

 will furnish a considerable daily supply for months at a time. Fla- 

 vored and made stronger by the addition of bitter roots, it is greatly 

 enjoyed by the many, though despised by a few, and may be indulged 

 in to a considerable excess without making drunk. It has become a 

 burning question, among those who have been converted to Moham- 

 medanism, whether the drinking of tunak is allowable under their 

 law, and the favorite beverage may yet become the occasion of a re- 

 ligious schism. 



The Battas attribute all serious sickness to the work of evil spirits, 

 begu ; and, as they know by experience that persons who go down from 

 the highlands and remain for a considerable length of time on the 

 coast or in the flat country are liable to be attacked by a virulent 

 fever after their return, they have come to consider the begu of the 

 sea, the begu laut, a particularly malignant and dangerous spirit. 



A woman who had been visiting her relatives in the flat country 

 was attacked and brought low with one of these fevers. Her husband 

 did not hesitate long, for she was a valuable help and had cost half his 

 estate in purchase-fees, but sent immediately for the most famous datu, 

 or medicine-man, in the region. An honorarium regulated by the 

 value at which the wife was held was paid the doctor, and an equal 

 sum was promised him in case of recovery. Incantations and external 

 means were tried for a few days with no beneficial results, and then 



