AN ELEPHANT 223 



vertise religious pilgrimages, but for the greater 

 part the natives of mainland and island are sim- 

 ilar in habit, dress and looks. The food of the 

 Sumatra Malay is rice, half or fully rotted fish, 

 and tapioca, which with gutta percha and rattan 

 constitute the native industries and articles of 

 export— though the business of it is practically in 

 the hands of the Chinese traders. As habitual 

 among uncivilized people, the women do all the 

 work. The men fish, using traps almost entirely, 

 and hunt small game with strategy and desultori- 

 ness; chiefly they smoke cigarettes of native to- 

 bacco rolled in leaf. The men also chew tobacco 

 and have the unprepossessing habit of pushing 

 the large cud under their upper lip, where it hangs 

 partially exposed as they talk. Both sexes of all 

 ages chew the betel-nut and a few blacken their 

 teeth, although the custom is not prevalent as in 

 Siam, where black teeth are the rule, not to say 

 the f ashioji. Another trait these peoples share in 

 common is their lack of hospitality to the wayfar- 

 ing stranger; time and again in both Siam and 

 Sumatra I rested at a native's house without being 

 offered even fruit, of which there was abundance— 

 an experience differing from any had with unciv- 

 ilized tribes among which I have elsewhere trav- 

 elled, especially the American Indians, who have 

 always divided their last shred of meat with me. 



