H) ACHEH, 



The amount of the population is not known with any certainty, 

 but is generally accepted as one and- a-half million. Though the 

 Malay predominate?, we find, however, especially along the coast 

 and at the most frequented ports, the Tamil, Arabic, Hindu, and 

 Nias races, the last named being descendants of the slaves brought 

 in former times from the Nias islands. 



In character, the orang Acheh differs very little from the 

 Sumatra Malay, or Malay of the interior of the Peninsula, but 

 being less civilised, and having lived so far in an independent 

 country, he is, if anything, more turbulent, more piratical, more 

 treacherous, less confiding, more demoralised, and, in a word, the 

 greater blackguard of the two. Of course, in making the above 

 comparison, I do not take for my pattern the well behaved Malay 

 one is in the habit of meeting in our Colonies or the more regu- 

 lated Native States, but I refer to the average Malay such as 

 he was before he came under the influence of civilization ; nor, on 

 the other hand, am I characterising an orang Acheh who has long- 

 been in contact with European or other traders from the Straits. 



A propos of their character, I may mention that, not infrequent- 

 ly, a respectable Malay of Sumatra has been known, when giving 

 his son his last advice on starting life, to add : — " Jangan turut tipii 

 orang Acheh." 



In figure the men are mostly tall and slim, waisted though often 

 with broad shoulders, while the women are well formed, and would 

 be good looking were they not so hard-worked from their very 

 youth ; they become prematurely aged. They further disfigure 

 themselves by wearing huge brooch-shaped earrings requiring the 

 lobes of their ears to be stretched to an unsightly extent. 



Both men and women dress soberly, the colours of the selen- 

 dang. sarong, and s^Iuar, which last are peculiarly narrowed at the 

 ends, being generally brown, black, or dark ; on high days and 

 holidays, however, you see them wearing a white shirt or jacket 



