IN SUMATRA, 135 



Irang, the chief centre of the pepper anr] rlammar trade, where 

 there was more high hind and virgin forest. From tliis village 

 alone in the height of the pepper season more than fifty pony 

 loads go every week to the coast, each carryhig 1| piculs, 

 or 211) Amsterdam ponnds weight. It is rare that single 

 loads are sent down to the coast, generally a small troop goes to- 

 gether, and the village sqnure presents rather an exciting scene 

 in the early morning of a despatch of cargo. The strong but 

 wofully skinny creatures have, like their masters, little relish 

 for hard work, and conduct themselves in tho most refra<^torv 

 manner possible— objecting first of all to be cauglit, then 

 resenting with teeth and limbs the impost of pack-saihlle and 

 bags. When, however, the last cord has been adjusted, after 

 many imprecations and Allah-il-Allahs from tho pack-master, 

 they give in to the inevitable with perfect grace, Jiiarcliing 

 off' as docilely as possible generally behind a belled leader, 

 and thereafter require little or no attention. 



The price obtained for this amount of pepper at the coast 

 amounts to about £118, no mean amount per week (during 

 the season) for a small village, Mhose. only outlay consists in 

 the cost of food and the Government tax of one guilder per 

 head. It takes seven or eight years for a new pej>per garden 

 to reach maturity, but when it is in full bearing, each bhrub 

 will yield as much as 10s. 8d. wortli of fruit in a season. 



The other great industry of the place is dammar collecting. 

 This substance, as is well known, is the resin whirdi exu<les 

 from notches made in various species of coniferuus and 

 dipterocarpous trees. Some of these, especially of the latter 

 family, are immense giants, out of whose stem — whicdi often 

 reaches 100 feet before branchin<j — the native cuts lar^re 

 notches, at intervals of a few feet, up to a height of son^o 

 forty or fifty feet from the ground.. The tree is then left for 

 three or four months, when, if it be a very healthy one, suf- 

 ficient dammar will have exuded to make it wortli collecting; 

 the yield may then be as much as ninety-four Amsterdam 

 pounds. Most trees, however, exude a far less quantity and 



require a longer time. 



The damar attam ffrom the ILpea dryohilanoiths and other 

 BipterocarpesB, and not from the Dammara (Coni/er/e) ), a beau- 

 tiful clear glass-like substance —the ** eye dammar," as the 



