222 JIN ABU FINDS 



musical boom of the village drum— a hollowed 

 tree trunk, vigorously pounded by an aged person 

 whose office was considered an honored one. Later 

 there came metal gongs and liquid-noted wooden 

 affairs, patterned somewhat after the xylophone. 

 Here, as elsewhere, I always found Malayan music 

 soft, carrying to my ear melodious tones rather 

 than any tune, and always pleasing. 



The house of my host, which may answer as a 

 type, was built square of bamboo, raised about eight 

 feet above the ground, and reached by a ladder, 

 pulled up at night. The floor of the single room was 

 made of rattan strung from side to side, leaving 

 open spaces, through which domestic refuse was 

 thrown, and housekeeping thus made easy. In 

 one corner sat a woman making baskets, of which 

 in a few simple patterns they are industrious 

 weavers ; in another corner was a kind of box upon 

 which the cooking was done in a brass pot of simple 

 yet most artistic form. Around the room hung 

 the crude, few belongings of the family, with com- 

 pleted baskets and the everlasting and ever-smell- 

 ing fish swinging from the rafters overhead. In 

 appearance the Sumatra Malays differ but very 

 little from those of the Malay Peninsula; what 

 difference there is, is in their favor. Some of 

 them affect a trouser sarong of pronounced peg- 

 top variety, and others wear rimless hats that ad- 



