SUMATRA 199 



The small group known as the Batu or Eock Islands 

 come next in the chain. There are three chief islands — 

 Pingi, Masa, and Bala, each of which is about 30 miles 

 long. Their inhabitants seem to be a similar race to the 

 Nias people, with whom they keep up a friendly inter- 

 course. There are many Malays and Chinese settled on 

 the coast, the latter, as in Nias, haAdng the whole trade 

 in their hands. Upon the little islet Pulo Telo the 

 Dutch have a resident Controleur. 



The Mentawi Islands are two only in number — 

 Sibiru and Sipora — of which the former is much the 

 larger, being not much inferior to Nias in size. The 

 Nassau Islands — North and South Pagi or Poggy Islands 

 — may conveniently be grouped with them as being in- 

 habited by the same race — a people whom Von Eosenberg 

 declares to be totally distinct in physique and speech 

 from any other tribe of the adjacent islands and main- 

 land, and strikingly like the Eastern Polynesians. Their 

 language is soft, full of vowels, and of a very primitive 

 character, possibly possessing affinities with some of the 

 Polynesian dialects. They love to decorate themselves 

 with flowers, tattoo themselves on the breast, and file their 

 front teeth ; all of which customs are characteristic rather 

 of the Pacific Islands than Malaysia. They are very 

 peaceable in disposition, firearms are unknown, and 

 their only weapons are the bow and arrow. They live 

 chiefly by fishing, and rice seems to be little if at all 

 cultivated, their chief food being the products of the 

 sago and coco palms. Professor Keane regards these 

 people as possibly autochthones — " the only remnant 

 of the western Mahoris that has escaped contact 

 and fusion with the intruding sub -Mongolian and 

 other Asiatic races." Both the Nassau Islands are 

 high and densely wooded, the largest about 30 miles 



