100 



AUSTEALASIA. 



rule, owing to the high price of the bride, although another form of union, of 

 matriarchal origin, also exists, according to which the husband is purchased by 

 the wife. Being regarded as merely so much movable property, he may even be 

 seized for debt, and bequeathed as a legacy to the testator's heirs. 



Traces survive of the Hindu religions, for the Battas recognise a triune diety, 

 Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer ; and also admit the existence of other divinities 

 and genii, to whom they give the slightly modified Indian name of diebata {demie). 



Fig. 38. — Inhabitants of Sitmatea. 

 Scale 1 : 15,000,000. 



300 Miles. 



But religious worship enters very little into their daily life. They can scarcely 

 be said to have any regular ceremonial, and there are only one or two temples 

 in the countrv. The natives are mostly satisfied with invoking the httle idols 

 they always carry about with them in pouches, and are most concerned in circum- 

 venting the evil spirits by ingenious devices. Family groups and whole com- 

 munes have been known to secure the protection of some powerful patron by 

 burving a child alive, under the belief that its spirit will henceforth watch over 

 their plantations. Chiefs and nobles are supposed to survive m the after- world. 



