192 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 



based on the Dewanagiri. The communal system, so 

 widely spread in Sumatra, obtains among them, and the 

 tribal divisions are known as siikus, as in the ]\Ienang- 

 kabo lands, although the headmen and chiefs have the 

 Javanese appellations of Pangerang and Adhipatti. Java- 

 nese influence, indeed, has no doubt left its impress upon 

 these as upon other of the southern peoples of the 

 island, and has given them a good deal of their civilisa- 

 tion. Mr. Marsden's description of the character of the 

 Sumatran native is in reality drawn from the Eejang 

 people, and as it is more or less accurate even at the 

 present day, it may be reproduced here. " The Sumatran 

 of the interior," he says, " though partaking in some 

 degree of the Malayan vices, possesses many exclusive 

 virtues, but they are more of the negative than the posi- 

 tive kind. He is mild, peaceable, and forbearing, unless 

 his anger be roused by ^'iolent provocation, when he is 

 implacable in his resentments. He is temperate and 

 sober, being equally abstemious in meat and drink. The 

 diet of the natives is mostly vegetal)le. Water is their 

 only beverage, and although they kill a fowl or a goat 

 for a stranger, they are rarely guilty of that extrava- 

 gance for themselves ; not even at their festivals, where 

 there is plenty of meat, do they eat much of anything 

 liut rice. Their hospitality is extreme, and liounded by 

 their ability alone. Their manners are simple ; they 

 are generally, except among the chiefs, devoid of the 

 Malay cunning and chicane, yet endued with quickness 

 of apprehension, and on many occasions discovering a 

 considerable degree of penetration and sagacity. They 

 are modest, particularly guarded in their expressions, 

 courteous in their behaviour, grave in their deportment, 

 ])cing seldom or never excited to laughter, and patient 

 to a great degree. On the other hand, they are litigious, 



