Messrs. Buetox and Ward's Journey into the Batak Country. 497 



down to the feet, the other loosely throwTi over the shoulders as a shawl. 

 Those worn by the chiefs are fringed at the ends with a deep border, neatly 

 and curiously worked with the needle. The head-dress of the common 

 people is usually a belt of straw or bark tied round the head, a little 

 above the ears, leaving the top bare ; a wreath, also, formed of a green 

 shrub, is not uncommon. That of the more respectable people is 

 formed of a piece of blue or white foreign cloth, five cubits long, tied 

 round in the same way, leaving the two ends protruding, one over one ear, 

 the other over the opposite eye. The chiefs wear also moderate-sized ear- 

 rings of gold. The women have no head-dress; and after marriage only 

 one cloth, fastened round the loins, the parts above being perfectly exposed. 

 Previously to marriage they have an additional garment covering the 

 breasts : but in the vicinity of the lake this practice was said to be reversed, 

 the married women covering the bosom, and those unmarried leaving it 

 exposed. The daughters of the chiefs have sometimes thick brass wire 

 twisted about their wrists, and if unmarried, a few strings of beads round 

 their necks. The children go naked to the age of six or eight years, or 

 even longer. When the men leave their villages, they carry with them a 

 bag, made sometimes of mat, sometimes of goat's-skin, containing tobacco, 

 gambir, sirih, chunam, &c. To the neck of the bag is attached a thick 

 brass chain, three or four feet in length, usually terminating with a pair of 

 large flat iron nippers for plucking out the beard. This chain forms a 

 counterpoise in front when the bag is thrown over the shoulder. 



The people o? Silindunguse neither opium nor intoxicating liquors, except 

 toddy (palm-wine) : but both sexes and all ages are exceedingly addicted to 

 smoking a stimulating herb of a slight narcotic quality; which, however, they 

 eagerly abandon for tobacco, when that is procurable. The men, whether on 

 a journey or at home, as they have little employment, are seldom seen with- 

 out their pipes. These are commonly very laj-ge, the tube being about four 

 feet in length and the head of a proportionate size, giving the idea of a 

 sledge-hammer, for wiiich indeed we actually mistook one. Those used by 

 the chiefs are mostly of brass, pohshed and neatly indented; those of the 

 common jjcople are of wood, and not so large. 



The people of Silindung are far from being cleanly, either in their persons 

 or tlieir Iiouses. We believe they never wash their clothes, and but seldom 

 bathe their persons ; on asking their reason for which, they replied tiiat the 

 water was too cold. 



3 T2 



