IN SUMATRA. 243 



wherein birds are lodged, and thence discharge the stone over 

 the one that hides them, so as to drop on the bird in the other. 

 When sick they use various leaves from which they make 

 decoctions ; but their curative pharmacopoeia is very limited. 

 I could not discover that they knew many poisons, but they 

 were best acquainted with such plants as possessed aphrodisiac 

 qualities, or were able to cause abortion. 



In their truly wild state they leave their dead unburied in 

 the spot where they died, giving the place ever after a wide 

 berth ; but where the influence of the village customs has 

 begun to affect them, the body is now generally buried face 

 downward, with a strip of bark below and above the body. 

 They seem to have no idea of a state after death : " When we 

 are dead, we are dead." 



They have a tradition that they are the descendants of the 

 younger of three brothers : the two elder were circumcised in 

 the usual way : the younger it was found no instruments would 

 circumcise, a circumstance which so ashamed hini that he 

 betook himself to the woods to live, and " We are his descend- 

 ants," they told me. 



Leading so nomadic a life, the jurisdiction that can be 

 exercised by any one over them can be but very slight. Such 

 as it is, it is wielded by the elders of the party, who settle 

 disputes that arise between man and man, and impose punishr 

 ments for offences. 



It will be seen that the Kubus differ much in their habits 

 and ways of life from those about them ; but whether they are 

 the last survivors of their race, or are only a straggling rem- 

 nant, kin to those abont them, who at some past time were 

 driven from below the family rooftree to save their lives in the 

 forest fastness, and who, even when persecution has ceased, yet 

 cling to the shade of those pillars which in their need afforded 

 them the kindly refuge they sought, are questions on which 

 the osteological evidence must be appealed to. Dr. G arson 

 finds that the antero-posterior length in comparison to the 

 transverse breadth of the brim in my Kubu woman's pelvis is ex- 

 treme ; " indeed I have never," he remarks, " seen or measured 

 a pelvis of so exaggerated a type, approaching in form nearly 

 to that of the anthropomorphous apes ; the great antero- 

 posterior length of this specimen is due chiefly to the straight- 



