440 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



The raj all now showed me a spot by the wayside 

 where a Batta, who had been guilty of adultery, 

 had been killed and eaten by his fellows not long 

 before. All the others in the party confirmed the 

 story in every particular. A little farther on was a 

 Batta village consisting of four houses on high posts. 

 One was small and stood apart from the others, and 

 in that they stored their rice. To prevent the mice 

 from reaching it, large projecting pieces of planks 

 were placed on the tops of the posts. The walls, 

 floor, and gable-ends of the dwelling-houses were 

 made of plank, and the roof was a thatching of grass 

 or straw. Having some curiosity to see the internal 

 arrangements of a Batta house, I climbed up a ladder 

 of five or six rounds at one end of the building, and 

 took a place assigned me on the floor. There was no 

 bench nor stool, nor any thing of the kind, so, ac- 

 cording to Batta etiquette, I rested my back against 

 the side of the house. The whole building was in 

 one room, without a shadow of any partition. From 

 the number of the inmates, I saw that probably four 

 families dwelt in this single apartment, and this sus- 

 picion was strengthened when I noticed a rude fire- 

 place, without any chimney, in each corner. On 

 inquiry, I was informed that my conjectures were 

 true. " But how do you know," I asked, " what 

 part belongs to one family and what to another ? 

 Where is your partition ? " One of them, who could 

 understand a little Malay, gravely rose, and, coming 

 to my side in answer to my query, pointed to a crcLck 

 in the floor. 



From this place the rajah had said I could obtain 



