490 Messrs. Burton and Ward's Journey into the Batak Country. 



nothing could pacify the clamour of the people until we could exhibit 

 ourselves to public view : it was therefore recommended that we should 

 ascend a loft at the gable end of the house fronting the street, where we 

 sat exposed for several hours, and added to the novelty of the scene by dis- 

 playing a telescope, a raarinei-'s compass, a pair of spectacles, a case of 

 mathematical instruments, some printed books, and in fact every article 

 about us, even the meanest of which attracted notice and applause. 



We were scarcely less interested by the internal appearance of the 

 villages, than we had previously been by that of the surrounding country. 

 The one subordinate to our host consisted of twenty-four houses, in a 

 straight line, with the gable ends uniformly facing the street, and separated 

 from each other by a vacant space of three or four yards. The opposite 

 side was formed by a corresponding row of open buildings on the same 

 model, somewhat smaller, appropriated by night for the sleeping places of 

 the young men, and by day to the more public occupations of the family. 

 The space between the ceiling and the roof was used as a granary, and as a 

 depot for the skulls of their enemies. Each house was elevated five or six 

 feet above the ground, on large wooden posts or pUlars. The side walls, made 

 of plank, were carried about four feet above the floor, projecting outward- 

 ly from bottom to top : the ends were formed by a similar projection, con- 

 tinued to the apex of the roof, and forming a kind of inclined gable. The 

 roof appeared disproportionately large, being very high, sunk in the middle, 

 raised and projecting at the ends, and surmounted at each apex with an imi- 

 tation of a bullock's head and horns ; thus affording a convenient shelter in 

 the street from the rain and sun. Tiie entrance, unlike that of the Batak 

 houses on the coast, was by a trap-door in the floor from beneath. The in- 

 terior contained no separate apartments, but formed a single room, thirty 

 or forty feet by twenty. In each of the four corners was a fire-place ; 

 but having neither windows nor vent for the smoke, it became almost in- 

 tolerable to remain long within. A large shelf, or loft, extending along 

 the middle and sides, together with a wooden jar or two, or a chest 

 scooped out of the trunk of a tree, and a few dishes and cooking utensils, 

 constituted the principal articles of furniture. Of the detail and economy 

 of the interior, however, we can give but a faint idea. Something may be 

 conjectured from the fact, that each house is peopled with no fewer than from 

 thirty to fifty inmates. The liouses were constructed generally of excellent 

 materials, exhibiting marks of superior workmanship, and in many instances 



