SUMATRA. 21 



I SHALL not attempt to give an account of the various na- Nativesoj- 

 tions into which this illand is divided : That or the Battas is too 

 remarkable to be overlooked ; they are of fmaller ftature than 

 the reft of the Sumatrans, and their complexions fairer; their 

 religion is paganifm, yet from very anticnt cuftom they hold \w 

 refpe(5l the fultan of Mena?igecabow., in all probability from the 

 period in which both were of the fame religion. We have our 

 fettlement on their coaft, which enabled two of our fadtorv, 

 Mr. Charles Miller and Mr. Holloway, to undertake a journey into 

 the interior parts of the country. I refer my reader for the par- 

 ticular account to the Ixviiith volume of the Philofophical Tranf- 

 adlions. From this expedition is verified the circumftance of 

 the natives being ajttbropopbagi, and eat the flefh of prifoners 

 of war, or of offenders condemned for capital crimes. As 

 foon as the man is put to death, they rufh on the body, cut 

 pieces of the yet tremulous limbs, clip it in lemon juice and fait, 

 and eat it with exquifite pleafure. Mr. Miller fays, they fpake in 

 raptures of the foles of the feet, and palms of the hands, as pe- 

 cuhar dainties. Marco Polo * tells us, that in the kingdom of 

 Dragoiam they eat the bodies of their relations and bell friends 

 who chance to die, thinking it a peculiar refpect to the deceafed. 

 They then bury the bones in the caverns of the mountains. 

 Polo mentions this horrid cuftom in other iflands, fo that it cer- 

 tainly had fpread far more exteniively than is imagined. The 

 opinion v.^as generally exploded, till the voyages in our days fur- 

 nilhed us with feveral examples; fome moft dreadful, in which 

 many Europeans fell victims to the cannibal appetite : Even the 



* Bergeron, p. 134. 



illuftrious 



