BAT 



41 



B A T 



Our information with regard to the people forming the 

 Battas tribes is so scanty, that any statement we can give 

 respecting their system of government must be liable to un- 

 certainty. It is said that the supreme government over the 

 whole of the districts is exercised by one chief, who lives 

 at the north-western extremity of the Toba Lake. By 

 this chief a deputy is appointed for each district, who, as- 

 sisted by a council composed of the leading inhabitants, con- 

 ducts the political affairs of the district ; he frames laws, 

 declares war, makes peace, and administers justice. The 

 authority of these deputies is very much controlled by the 

 councils with whom they act, so that the different districts 

 may be considered as so many oligarchies. The more mi- 

 nute functions of government are otherwise performed, each 

 village forming, in this respect, a distinct community, and 

 possessing within itself the power of framing regulations for 

 its own municipal government. The inhabitants of the dif- 

 ferent districts are so little held together by the authority of 

 the chief governor, that it is not unusual for two or more vil- 

 lages to be engasred in war against each other, while the 

 rest of the nation is at peace. It is probably owing to their 

 system of government, as well as to their inland situation, 

 and to the ease with which their few natural wants can be 

 supplied, that these people have retained unaltered their 

 primitive habits and character. Compared with the Malays 

 of the coast, although they arc less enterprising, the Battas 

 are more industrious. A great part of the necessaries of 

 life required at such of the Malayan settlements as are 

 wiihiu their reach is supplied from the Battas country. 



These people consider themselves to have been the earliest 

 settlers on Sumatra, and they have a tradition that their 

 forefathers came from a country lying to the east of that 

 inland, but their belief upon this subject is very vague, and 

 they exhibit so many points of resemblance to Hindus, 

 that it appears more probable they must originally have 

 come from India. The resemblance here spoken of is shown 

 in their persons: they are of middle stature, well made, and 

 have prominent noses. Their religious notions, likewise, 

 savour strongly of Hindu origin. They believe in the ex- 

 istence of a Supreme Creator of the world, who has com- 

 mitted the charge of its government to three sons, who, 

 in their turn, have delegated to inferior gods the duties of 

 their otlicc. The names of these gods are said to have a 

 strong resemblance to those of the Hindu mythology. This 

 system of faith is burthened with numerous superstitions. 

 The people bi-lieve in the constant interposition of good and 

 evil genii in their worldly affairs, and every village has its 

 peculiar demons or spirits, chiefly composed of the souls of 

 the deceased inhabitants. As might be supposed, under 

 the influence of such a belief, the person who exercises the 

 office of priest, and who is frequently the head man or rajah 

 ot the village, is a person of great consequence, to whose 

 advice and assistance recourse is had upon all occasions. 

 The Battas do not appear to have any idea of an existence 

 beyond the present, and their religious prejudices and fears 

 being thus limited to merely the objects of sense have little 

 or 11 1 influence over their moral conduct. 



The well-ascertained fact of their cannibalism has occa- 

 1 them to be considered brutal and ferocious in their 

 nature, an opinion which appears to be by no means well 

 Ion tided ; they are, on the contrary, quiet and timid to a greater 

 decree than even Hindus. Their principal food is rice 

 ;i >i. 1 batatas. Meat they seldom or never taste, but when 

 do indulge 111 it they are not particular as to the de- 

 'iun or condition of the animals they eat. According 

 to Marsden, their indulgence in anthropophagy is limited 

 to the devouring of persons slain or taken prisoners in war, 

 and of certain classes of criminals, llobbcrs, if taken in the 

 fact, are publicly executed and eaten forthwith, but if they 

 elude immediate detection, a slighter punishment than loss 

 <jf life is awarded. Men taken in adultery are subjected to the 

 same re voliing punishment, with this additional circumstance, 

 that they may lie eaten piecemeal without being previously 

 put to death. It is not considered lawful to eat the bodies 

 of persons taken or slain in the wars or feuds which occur 

 between different villages or districts, but only such as fall 

 nit i their power in what may be considered as national con- 

 uiit has very recently (1835) been received 

 in Europe of the killing, and probably also the eating by 

 the Battas, of t\w> English missionaries, who were proceed- 

 ing through the country in the direction of the great Toba 

 Lake. It appears that the tribe among whom the mission- 

 aries fell were at the time engaged in war with another 



tribe, and they might easily, under those circumstances, put 

 a wrong construction upon the unusual appearance of 

 strangers among them. It is said to be the opinion of per- 

 sons near to the spot, and therefore better able than we can 

 be to form a correct judgment on the case, that if the two 

 missionaries had taken the precaution to send a messenger 

 before them, to explain the pacific object of their journey, 

 they would have met with hospitable welcome, instead of 

 the melancholy fate that has befallen them. Dr. Leyden, 

 in his work on the languages and literature of the Hindo- 

 Chinese nations, states that the Battas frequently also eat 

 their aged or infirm relations, as an act of pious duty. 

 When, among them, a man becomes infirm and tired 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 burthen 

 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. 

 This practice of the Battas eating their aged parents has 

 been compared with the usage of the Padsei of India men- 

 tioned by Herodotus (lib. iii. 99) ; and Dr. Leyden has con- 

 jectured, perhaps rather hastily, that the Padoei and the 

 Battas are the same people. A similar practice prevailed 

 amongst the Massagetso (Herod, i. 216), and among the 

 antient Tupis of Brazil. 



Slavery exists among the Battas. The classes who are 

 reduced to this state of degradation are their own country- 

 men, and generally orphans, prisoners Jaken during their 

 intestine wars, 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 are 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 con- 

 siderable resemblance, both in sound and construction, to 

 that of the Malays : it has by some persons been considered 

 a dialect of the Malayan tongue. The spoken language is 

 somewhat different a circumstance which may very na- 

 turally arise, in progress of time, among a people of 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 shuw skill in poetry ; and it forms part of their so- 

 cial amusements to undertake contests in improvising, which 

 they keep up for hours together with considerable spirit. 



It is principally in the Battas country that the camphor- 

 trees of Sumatra are found: none, it is said, grow south of 

 the equator. The camphor which these trees yield is con- 

 sidered to be so good in quality, that it sells in the markets 

 of China for more than ten times the price paid for that pro- 

 duced in Japiiii, and which is yielded by a different plant. 

 The camphor-tree of Sumatra grows without cultivation, 

 and attains to a size equal to that of the largest timber trees, 

 being frequently above fifteen feet in circumference. Cam- 

 phor in the Battas language is called Kapur, of which the 

 European name is a corruption. In Eastern markets it is 

 known as Kapur Baroos, the latter word being the name of 

 the town on the coast of Sumatra whence it is shipped. 



Benjamin, or benzoin, is almost exclusively a product of 

 the Battas country. Marsden says that large plantations of 

 the trees by which it is yielded (the Styrax benzmn) are 

 cultivated by the natives. The other vegetable productions 

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

 [See SUMATRA.] 



The entire population of the Battas country has been esti- 

 mated at 1,500,000 souls, but this computation must be 

 altogether conjectural. 



(Marsden's History of Sumatra; Asiatic Researches; 

 Porter's Tropical Agriculturist ; Library of Entertaining 

 Knowledge, Vegetable Substances used in the Arts.) 



BATTENS, pieces of wood of various lengths, 7 inches 

 wide and generally not exceeding 2J inches in thickness 

 when imported. They are used for floors, and are also 

 placed upright against walls to fix the laths on which the 

 plastering is set. East-country battens, as imported, are 



No. 210. 



[THE PENNY CYCLOP.EDIA.] 



VOL. IV.-G 



