THE MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR FROM ARENGA SACCHARIFERA IN 

 ASAHAN, ON THE EAST COAST OF SUMATRA. 



HARLEY HARRIS BAR^LETT. 



During a recent residonoe in Asahan, on the East Coast of Sumatra, the 

 writer took a number of photographs illustrating the manufacture of sugar 

 from the sap of the sugar-palm. Arenga saccharifera Labill., or, as it is less 

 familiarly but more correctly known, Arenga pinnata (Wurmb) Merr. 

 Although the essentials of the process have been frequently described, and are 

 well known to botanists and ethnologists, the descriptions are in general too 

 vague regarding local variations in procedure, which, if recorded, might prove 

 of decided ethnological interest. 



The population of Asahan is predominantly Batak. The chiefs trace 

 their descent remotely from Toba, and the Asahan dialect is but slightly 

 different from that of Toba. The majority of the people have been converted 

 to Islam, and therefore call themselves Malays, for in the Batak lands, as 

 elsewhere in the East Indies, the term Malay is more frequently used by the 

 natives to denote religious than racial affiliation. All of the more prosperous 

 and sophisticated natives are actual or nominal Mohammedans, but from the 

 poorest to the richest, all, even the Sultan of Asahan. are of Batak blood. 

 This statement disregards, of course, tlie thousands of contract coolies, 

 Javanese and Chinese, who are employed on the great plantations. 



Northwest of Asahan, on tlie coast, is the small district of Batoe Bara, 

 where the inhabitants are undoubtedly of mixed Malayan and Batak origin. 

 The chiefs, however, trace their descent from Meuangkabau, and the social 

 .structure, with non-Katak division into four snckOi'\ or marriage groups, is 

 like that of Southern Sumatra. Inland from this small Menangkabau colony, 

 the contact of the Asahan Batak along their northwestern border is with the 

 Simeloengoen Batak of Tanah Djawa. On the southvi^est they pass into the 

 Toba Batak of Habinsaran, and on the southeast into the so-called Malays of 

 Koewaloe, who, like the Malays of Asahan, are of Toba descent. 



There has been considerable infusion of Malayan blood into Asahan from 

 the trading points on the Asahan River, but it has probably been by no means 

 as extensive as the Mohammedanized inhabitants like to believe. The present 

 sultanate has at various times been claimed as a vassal state by both Atjeh 

 and Siak, and the heroic epic of the Atjehnese, "Hikayat Malem Dagang," 

 (') which recites the exploits of the famous Radja Iskandar Moeda (1G07- 



iThe Malay and Bat.ik words used_ in thi.s paper aro siicllcd aocording to tho s.vsteni 

 current in Netherlands India. The vowels have the usual continental pronunciation 

 except that oe is equivalent to u. There are no peculiarities in the pronunciation of 

 the consonants : w<7 has the sound of the same letters in the English word singer j 

 dj is the English ;; ; is the English y. 



21st Mich. Acad. Sci. Rept., 1919. 



