7.V SUMATEA. 141 



Tillagers, are to be seen dotted over its floor. Daring the 

 day, the orang-jaga^ or watcliman, who occupies an open gnard- 

 room during the nijjht, makes the Bahii his watch-tower. 



All travellers passing through the village are free to its shade 

 and shelter. The orang-ledaga)ig^ or itinerant pedlar, finds 

 at once a free lodging, a market-place for his goods, and an 

 eager crowd to listen to the news he Lriiigs. Here all civic 

 feasts and festive gatherings are held. Here they enjuy the 

 pleasures of the dance for unbroken days and niglits together. 

 • This being trutlifuUy explained, means that the seated youths 

 behold with delighted eyes the peculiar and monotonous 

 posture figures, supposed to bo elegant and most bewitching, 

 of the ornament-bedizened maidens performing two and two 

 at a time to the clanging and elannnir of gong and druni, and 

 that the maidens in their turn have the privilege of gazing 

 on their future lords going through the same performance. 

 Under its roof, their love is consummated in the wedding 

 and attendant ceremonies. Here, before a crowded audience, 

 they are invested with their equivalent knighthoods and peer- 

 ages; and here, in many villages, they are at last laid out, 

 and pass from it to the grave. Around the Balai, therefore, 

 centres, as it wore, the whole life of a Lampong village. 



The Lampongers claim to be descended from the Jlalays of 

 Menangkabau (a district in tlie Padang region of Sumatra's 



West coast), where it is believed the first conquerors of the 

 island established their kingdom, whence they spread to the 

 northern central portion, and thence along the west and southern 

 coasts, of what is now the Lampong Kesidcncy, at first, slowly 

 by families and small communities, which agglomerated into 

 separate margas with their chiefs. 



The dialect spoken in the Lampongs "appears to be an 

 original tongue, Avith one-third of its words of unknown origin." * 



I am doubtful how far this will be borne out by its closer 

 study. It contains a very largo number of corrupted Malay 

 and Sundanese words; but the written symbols are pecu- 

 liar to Sumatra. In Java, where ^lalay (met with in the 

 coast towns), Sundanese (spoken only in the west of Java 

 and supposed to be a distinct language), and Javanese are 

 the spoken languages, Arabic is employed for expressing 



Stanfurd's Compendium of Geograiiliv, A^'Hralasia^ Apfx^ndix. 

 11 



