Ml 



lUTTKIt - 



BATTLE. 



M 



chiefly composed of the souls of the deceased inhabitant*. The 

 person who exercises the office of priest, and who is frequently the 

 head man or rajah of the village, is a person of great consequence, to 

 whose advice and assistance recourse is had upon all occasion.-. The 

 BatUs do not appear to have any idea of a future existence, and their 

 fears being thus limited to the objects of sense have little or no 

 influence over their moral conduct. They have a strong dislike to 

 look at the sea, which they believe to be the abode of evil spirits ; 

 this prejudice probably accounts for their residing in the interior of 

 the country. 



The well-ascertained fact of their cannibalism has occasioned them 

 to bo considered brutal and ferocious in their nature ; they are on the 

 contrary quiet and timid, to a greater degree than even Hindoos. 

 Their principal food is rice and batatas. Meat they seldom or never 

 taste, but when they do indulge in it they are not particular as to the 

 description or condition of the animals they eat. According to 

 Marsden their indulgence in anthropophagy is limited to the devour- 

 ing of person; slain or taken prisoners in war, and of certain classes 

 i if criminals. It is not considered lawful to eat the bodies of persons 

 taken or slain in the wars or feuds which occur between villages or 

 district*, but only such as fall into their power in what may be 

 considered as national contests. Dr. Leyden, in his work on the 

 languages and literature of the Hindoo-Chinese nations, states that 

 the Battas frequently eat their aged or infirm relatives, as an act 

 of pious duty. When among them a man becomes infirm ami t in-d 

 of life, he is said to invite his children to eat him : he ascends a 

 tree, round which his friends and descendants assemble, and the 

 whole of them join in singing a dirge, the burden of which is " The 

 season is come, the fruit is ripe, and it must descend." The victim 

 then descends, is deprived of life, and his remains are devoured in a 

 solemn banquet A similar practice prevailed among the Padtci of 

 India, mentioned by Herodotus (iii. 99), among the Massageto 

 (Herod, i. 216), and among the ancient Tupis of Brazil. 



Slavery exists among the Battas. The classes who are reduced to 

 this state of degradation are their own countrymen, and generally 

 orphans, prisoners taken during their intestine ware, or debtors. 

 To satisfy a debt, no matter how contracted, and probably the result 

 of a game of chance (for these people are great gamesters), not only 

 the man himself, but his whole family also, may be sold into slavery. 

 The custom of the country authorises every man to have as many 

 wives as he can purchase ; and as usually is the case where such a 

 custom prevails the wives perform all the drudgery, and arc in fact 

 considered to be little better than slaves. It is not often that a man 

 has more than two wives at the same time. 



The Battas have a written language, which bears a considerable 

 resemblance both in sound and construction to that of the Mai iv* : 

 it has by some persons been considered a dialect of the Malayan 

 tongue. The spoken language is somewhat different a circumstance 

 which may very naturally arise in progress of time among a people ol 

 whom only a very small proportion are able to use or understand the 

 written characters. It is said that not more than two persons in one 

 hundred among the Battas are able to read. Such books as they have 

 are chiefly upon astrology, omens, and other subjects of a superstitious 

 nature. Many persons among them show skill in poetry, and it 

 forms part of their social amusements to undertake contests in 

 improvising, which they keep up for hours together. 



It i priiicijmlly in the Battas country that the camphor-trees ol 

 Sumatra are found ; none it is said grow south of the equator. The 

 camphor which these trees yield is considered to be so good in quality 

 that it sells in the markets of China for more than ten times the 

 price paid for that produced in Japan, which is yielded by a dif- 

 ferent plant. The camphor-tree of Sumatra grows without cultiva- 

 tion, and attains to a sue equal to that of the largest timber-trees, 

 being frequently above 15 feet in circumference. Camphor in the 

 Battss language is called ' KapOr,' of which the European name is a 

 corruption. In Eastern markets it is known as ' Kapur Karoos,' the 

 Utter word being the name of the town on the coast of Sumatra 

 whence it is shipped. 



Benzoin is almost exclusively a product of the Battas country 

 Marsden says that large plantations of the trees by which it is yieldo 

 (the Nyrax bextoin) are cultivated by the natives. The other vegetable 

 productions of this part of Sumatra are common to the whole island. 



The entire population of the Battas country has been estimated a 1 

 1,500,000, but this computation must be altogether conjectural. 



(Mandril's Ilitlnry of Sumatra ; Aiialir Rrirarcfia ; Porter's 



al Ayriculturi.,1 . Ifbrarf ing Knowledge; Moor's 



kipitago, Singapore, 1837.) 



RT.] 



BATTICALO'A, an island situated near the entrance of an inlet of 

 the sea, on the east ooart of Ceylon, in 7 44' N. lat, 81 52' K. l..iu?. 

 '.iin a small fort and garrison, and is the head station of the 

 assistant Rorrrnment agent of th' Ion. A \Vesleyan 



mission was established here in 1848, and a small school is aided by 

 a grant from the government The country in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of Batticaloa is flat and fertile. It was here that the Dutch 

 admiral Spilbergen landed in Ifinz, when a communication was first 

 opened between the king of Candy and Holland. 



t'oa is also the name of a district of Ceylon, HUM r the charge 



f an assistant government agent; it comprises an area of 13,060 



square miles. In the governor's report in 1849 it is stated that 



much land was sold in this district in 1847 and 1848 for cocoa-nut 



Wanting, at a minimum price of It. an acre. [CEYLON.] 



BATTLE, Sussex, a market-town and seat of a Poor-Law Union, 

 M the parish and hundred of Battle and rape of Hastings. 

 lituated in 50 54' N. lat long. ; distant 8 miles N U 



tastings, and 66 miles S.K. from London, in a pleasant country, 

 he land rises in wooded swells : the population of the parish in 

 was 3849. The living is a vicarage in the archdeaconry of Lewes and 

 diocese of Chicheater. Battle Poor-Law Union contains f<> 

 >arishes and townships, with an area of 51,208 acres, and a ]>, >pulnti<ui 

 n 1851 of 1 1 



The name of the place was anciently Epiton ; it acquired the present 

 denomination in consequence of the great battle between the English 

 mil Normans, in which the former were defeated, and Harold tl.. r 

 ting killed, on the 14th October 1066. The Conqueror commenced 

 n the following year to build an abbey upon the site where the battle 

 jad raged most fiercely, the high altar of ita church being upon tin- 

 precise spot where according to some authorities Harold was L 

 ,ir where as others say his standard was taken. When the : 

 church was finished the Conqueror made an offering of his sword and 

 coronation robe at the high altar ; in this abbey was also deposited 

 the famous roll or table of all the Normans of const-'. 

 attended William to England. Copies of this catalogue have been 

 I'd; but modern antiquaries in general concur in the opinion 

 of Dugdale that the list was often altered by the monks to gratify 

 persons who wished to be considered of Norman extra. 

 ibbry was dedicated by the founder to St Martin, and filled 

 first instance with Benedictine monks from the abbey of Mann 

 in Normandy. All the land for a league around the house was gi 

 it, besides various churches and manors in different counties, and these 

 ore augmented by royal and private d"- -ul>se<|iicnt 



reigns. The prerogatives and immunities of the monastery were placed 

 on a level with those of Christ church, Canterbury ; the monks and 

 their tenants were exempt from episcopal and other ecclesiastical 

 jurisdiction ; they had the exclusive right of inquest in all murders 

 committed within their lands, the property of all treaaure discovered 

 on their estates, and the right of free warren ; the church was made a 

 sanctuary in cases of homicide ; and they had other privileges. The 

 abbot, who was mitred and a peer in Parliament, had also the royal power 

 of pardoning any condemned thief whom ho should pass or m 

 his way to execution. In the reign of Edward III. the abbot obtained 

 the king's leave to fortify the abbey. The Conqueror's intention seems 

 to have been that the foundation should maintain 140 monks, but pro- 

 vision does not appear to have been actually made for i>iiv )': 

 At the dissolution of the monastery, in the 26th of Henry V I 

 net income was valued at 880J. 14. 7Jrf., the gross revenue 

 :i>7/. ii*. 10K A pension of 661. 13*. 4d. was settled upon the 

 with Mtnller sums on sixteen other officers and monks. The site and 

 demesnes of the abbey were given to a person named Gilmer, who 

 pulled down a considerable portion of the buildings, in order to dis- 

 pose of the materials. He afterwards sold the estate . Sir Anthony 

 Browne, who began to convert part of the abbey into a mansion, \vhieh 

 was finished by his son, the first Lord Montague. Tin 

 fell to decay ; and when the property was sold to Sir Thou 

 the ancestor of Sir Uodfrey Webster, the existing pivprietor, the 

 present dwelling was erected on one side of the quadrangle of whieh 

 th" old abbey appears to have consisted. 



Battle Abbey stands on a gentle rise, with a fine sweep before it of 

 meadows and woods, confined by wooded hills, wliieh form a 

 -,\ ui'l'iiK towards Hastings and there meeting the sea. The ruins show 

 the ancient magnificence of the structure ; their circuit is com, 

 at about a mile. The whole of them are of a date long subsequent 

 to that of the original abbey. The remains occupy three sides of a 

 large quadrangle, the fourth having probably been taken down to 

 admit a view of the country when what is now the mid, He side was 

 converted into a dwelling. The two wings aru in minx. 

 the quadrangle that faces the town contains the grand entrance, w l-i.-h 

 is a large square buildim- cmK'ittled at the top with a lian 

 octagon tower at each comer. The front is adorned with a scries of 

 arches and neat pilasters; and this entrance is altogether a very rieh 

 and elegant specimen of lute pnpendiaulu '"" Tndor arehit, 

 This pile is locally called ' the Castle,' and until 17'.'!. v 

 fell in and rendered it unfit for the purpose, it was used as a town-hall 

 of Battle. The side "I the i 



by the people of Battle. The side "I the imadraiiKlu 01 



entrance consists only of two long, low, parallel walls, which formerly 



-upl'orted a row of chambers, and terminated in two elegant t 



The remaining side, which forms the existing mausi 



the greatest dilaj.!, Here stood the Abbey-chin, ], 



! plan cannot now be traced ; the only vestiges of it nr, 

 elegant arches, which seem to have belonged to the inside of a cloister : 

 they are now filled up, and appear on the outside of the house. 

 tiguous to the great church ore the ruins of a hall, which appears to 

 have been the refectory in unliii tin- monks. Another 



building of the same kind which stands a I ,l-!,ey 



is a structure of great beauty, although its dimensions, 166 feet by 



