202 ON THE LANGUAGKS AND LITERATURE 



or manang, like tht^ugis. Thus, in Udia, umbhhiane, 

 tumhhemaniy shnane or hnant, signify we, ^e, they, 



V. Batta. — The Batta language, which I regard 

 as the most ancient language of .Sw77Zfl^r^, is used by 

 the Batta tribes, who chiefly occupy the centre of that 

 island. The singularity of their manners, and in par- 

 ticular the horrid custom of anthropophagy, practised 

 by a nation in other respects more civilized than the 

 Malays by whom they are surrounded, has attracted 

 the attention of Europeans from the time of the ear- 

 liest voyagers to our own times, but no very satisfac- 

 tory account has ever been given of them, as a nation. 

 The best description of them is certainly given by 

 Marsden, in his history of Sumatra, but even that is 

 very imperfect and superficial, and at variance, in 

 some respects, with the information I received from 

 individuals of the nation. Marsden confines their 

 cannibalism to two cases ; that of persons condemned 

 for crimes, and that of prisoners of war; but they 

 themselves declare, that they frequently eat their own 

 relations, when aged and infirm, and that, not so 

 much to gratify their appetite, as to perform a pious 

 ceremony. Thus, when a man becomes infirm and 

 weary of the world, he is said to invite his own 

 children to eat him, in the season when salt and limes 

 are cheapest. He then ascends a tree, round which 

 his friends aud offspring assemble, and as they sh.ake 

 the tree, join in a funeral dirge, the import of which 

 is, " The season is come, the fruit is ripe, and it must 

 descend." The victim descends, and those that are 

 nearest and dearest to him, deprive him of life, and 

 devour his remains in a solemn banquet. This ac- 

 count is certainly more likely to excite incredulity 

 than the account of IVIarsden, but it is the account 

 of some of the Battas themselves, as well as tiiat of 

 the Malays in their vicinity. This inhuman custom is 

 not, however, without a precedent in history, for He- 



