AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 425 



that lie had eaten human flesh between thii'ty and 

 forty times, and that he had never in all his life 

 tasted any thing that he relished half as well. This 

 custom has prevailed among the Battas from time 

 immemorial. 



From Marco Polo's writings we learn that, as 

 early at least as in 1290, they were addicted to their 

 present revolting habits. 



Sir Stamford Raffles, who visited Tapanuli Bay 

 in 1820, was informed that any one who should be 

 convicted of the following five crimes must be cut 

 up alive : For adultery ; midnight robbery ; in wars, 

 where prisoners were taken ; intermariying in the 

 same tribe ; and for a treacherous attack on any 

 house, village, or person. The facts which came to 

 my knowledge while in this region, and the state- 

 ments of the Dutch officials and of the natives 

 themselves, entirely confirm this account of their 

 customs and laws, except in regard to that against 

 intermarrying. Such are yet the practices of the 

 people in this immediate vicinity, and such, not 

 many years ago, were those of all the people 

 among whom we had been travelling for the last 

 four days. 



Here, and at several other places in the interior, 

 I have seen young trees of a species of cinnamon, 

 hayu mcmis, or " sweet wood " of the Malays. Its 

 leaves and bark have a considerable aroma, but it is 

 not the true cinnamon of Ceylon, nor that of Cochin 

 China nor China. Cinnamons of one or more species 

 occur also in Java, Borneo, Luzon, and Magindanao. 

 As our cari'iage needed repairing, and l)oth the in- 



