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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



AS A SOCIAL CENTER THE HAND LOOM AND THE YARN REEE IN SUMATRA TAKE THE 

 PLACE OF THE VILLAGE FOUNTAIN IN THE NEAR EAST 



Many of the sarongs made by the natives are elaborately interwoven with gold threads. 

 They are lacking in originality of pattern, however. The silver filigree-work of the men is 

 much more artistic. 



though it is thought that they were once 

 more advanced than they are today. 



The reports of early Arabs trading 

 with the Sumatran coast gave the Bataks 

 their evil notoriety as cannibals, eaters 

 of captives, foreigners, and their own 

 aged and decrepit relatives. 



The half million Bataks scattered 

 throughout the mountains and uplands 

 of northern and central Sumatra are 

 roughly divided into groups according to 

 differences in dialect. Over a fifth pro- 

 fess Mohammedanism and about half 

 that number Christianity ; but in both 

 cases the faith amounts to little more 

 than a form of superstition, showing only 

 vague traces of those beliefs and hardly 

 affecting the village law of racial customs 

 and traditions. 



The remainder, including the Kara- 

 Bataks and the tribes of Toba Lake, are 

 animistic pagans, and the circumcision 

 practiced by the former, although doubt- 



less due to some forgotten Mohammedan 

 influences, is not a religious rite. 



It is now general in the case of most of 

 these tribes to refer to cannibalism as a 

 practice of the past and at present non- 

 existent. 



CHEATING DEATH BY GIVING ONE'S BODY 

 TO BE EATEN 



As to whether or not any tribes con- 

 tinue the practice of eating their aged 

 and decrepit relatives I found a diverg- 

 ence of opinion among the European 

 residents of Sumatra. This form of 

 cannibalism is by no means rare, and 

 usually consists of the ritual killing and 

 consumption of old and infirm males by 

 the younger members of their own tribe. 



When the aging warrior feels the wan- 

 ing of his powers, he climbs into a tree 

 encircled by his relations, who dance and 

 chant below. The old man presently 

 drops to the ground, symbolic of the fall 



