BY MOTOR THROUGH THE EAST COAST OF SUMATRA 



85 



A NATIVE CLOTH FACTORY 

 Evidently "industrial employment" does not tend to race suicide in Sumatra. 



used to support part of the weight of 

 enormous coiled silver earrings. 



We rarely saw men on the road ; the 

 few that accompanied the women strolled 

 along behind, quite unencumbered with 

 either baggage or babies, and saluted us 

 with a friendly courtesy rather unex- 

 pected in a tribe once so notorious for 

 cannibalism. Their garments were quite 

 similar to those of the women, with a 

 shorter sarong tied around the waist, and 

 often a coat or short pair of breeches in 

 addition. 



Both men and women were barefoot, 

 as usual, and although a stripe or a plaid 

 occasionally varied the dark blue of their 

 clothes, exceptions to the general style 

 were very rare. 



The earrings worn by many of the 

 women were of extraordinary dimen- 

 sions. Only the wealthier could afford 

 them, for each pair was worth about one 

 hundred and fifty gulden and must have 

 represented a considerable part of the 

 family treasure. They consisted of long 

 circular rods of solid silver, about three- 

 eighths of an inch in diameter, passed 



through the upper part of the ear and 

 bent back into the form of double, re- 

 versed coils, the coils projecting far for- 

 ward on the left side, to the rear on the 

 right. Their weight would have torn 

 them from the ears had they not been 

 partially supported by the corners of the 

 headdresses, and there was apparently no 

 way of removal without first uncoiling 

 one side. 



THE BATAKS, KINDRED OF THE HEAD- 

 HUNTING DAYAKS 



The Batak people are in many ways 

 the most interesting and remarkable of 

 all the tribes of Sumatra, although as yet 

 comparatively little is known of them. 

 Ethnologically they are related to the 

 head-hunting Dayaks of Borneo.* Their 

 type has not been modified by contact 

 with the outside world, nor even with 

 the more advanced peoples of the coast, 

 and their state of civilization and de- 

 velopment is still quite rudimentary, al- 



*See ''Sarawak, the Land of the White 

 Rajahs," by Harrison W. Smith, in The Geo- 

 graphic for February, 1919. 



