84 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



THE SUMATRAN MOTHER IS NEVER PREVENTED FROM DOING HER DAILY STINT OE 

 WEAVING BY HER LATEST BORN, WHO IS STRAPPED ACROSS HER BACK 



of their compounds — each a little cluster 

 of huts around a large central house — 

 very few buildings are found. The Ba- 

 taks are mostly peaceful and industrious, 

 occupying themselves with agriculture 

 and farming as well as in hunting and 

 fishing. Their agriculture depends upon 

 the rainfall, which, however, rarely fails ; 

 but it consists only of little patches of 

 rice and other grain struggling weakly 

 against the all-encompassing rank growth 

 and is barely sufficient to supply their own 

 modest needs. 



Not far from the top of the pass we 

 overhauled the long train of freighters 

 which we had watched in the rain of 

 the evening before creeping up the moun- 

 tain side past Bandar Baroe. The two- 

 wheeled carts, with low, roughly thatched 

 roofs of branches, extended in a close 

 single file far out across the plain, with 

 the thin legs of their red-turbaned Tamil 

 drivers dangling between the shafts. 



The buffaloes were dry and dusty, and 

 by the discouraged droop of their heads 

 seemed to express deep discontent with 

 the wallowless uplands. Among the slate- 

 gray backs of the slow-plodding line, half 

 a dozen light pink albinos — an absurd 



color on an animal of that size — regarded 

 us suspiciously out of curious white eyes. 



THE SIMPLICITY OE THE WOMEN'S ATTIRE 



Except for this train, we saw no vehi- 

 cles in the highlands, but several times 

 passed little groups of pedestrians walk- 

 ing single file along the roadside, on their 

 way to or from one of the markets that 

 are held at intervals in the different 

 Batak villages. Some were even tramp- 

 ing from the other side of the mountain, 

 for since the building of the road the 

 Bataks frequently trade with the nearer 

 compounds of the Deli plain. 



Almost all were women, balancing 

 heavily packed baskets of fine matting on 

 their heads, with babies astride their hips, 

 supported by a long scarf tied over one 

 shoulder. The simplicity and similarity 

 of their dress was striking, after the 

 variegated colors favored in Java and 

 Malaya, one dark blue garment — a long 

 sarong hung loose from under the arms 

 or around the waist — sufficing in the ma- 

 jority of cases. 



Their turban-like head-dresses were of 

 the same dark - blue cloth, peculiarly 

 folded, with drooping corners sometimes 



