IX HUMATKA. 



141 



villagers, are to be sficn dotted over its floor. During the 

 dny, the omng-jagaf or watchman, wlio occupies auopeii guard- 

 rniira during the night, makes the I3ahu his wateh-tovver. 

 Ail tnivcUers ptmiug tlirotigh the vilhige are I'ree to \U shade 

 iuid shelter. The orang-hedaganff^ or itinerant podtar, finds 

 at once a free hxlging, a market-phice (ot his goods, and aii 

 eager crowd to listen to the news he brings. Here all civic 

 feasts and festive gatherings are held. Here they enjoy the 

 pleasures of the dance for unbroken days and nights together. 

 Tins being truthfully explained, means that the seated youths 

 beholil with delighted eyes the peculiar and mcnotonous 

 pustnre fignrcs, su|)posed to be elegant and most bewitching, 

 of the ornament- hfdixened maidens performing two and two 

 at a time t<t the chiuging and clamtnir of gong and drum, and 

 that the maidens in their turn Itave the privilege of gassing 

 on their future lords going through the sanio performance. 

 Under its roof, their love is consummated in the wethliug 

 and attendant <'eremonies. Here, before a crowded audience, 

 they arc invested with their equivalent knighthodds and peer- 

 ages j and here, in many villages, they are at bust hud out, 

 and pass from it to the grave. Aronnit the Halai, therefore, 

 centres, as it were, the whole life of a Lampong village. 



The Lanipongera chtim to be descended from the .Malays tif 

 Menangkabau (a district in the Padang region of Sumatra's 

 West coast), where it is believed the first eontpiorors of the 

 ishmd estublished their kingdom, whence they spread to the 

 northern central portion, and thenee along the west and southern 

 coasts, of what is now the LamiHing liestdency, at first, slowly 

 by families and small communities, which agglomerated into 

 separ^ite margas with their chiefs. 



The dialect spoken in tho I.ampongs "appears to be an 

 original tisngue, with one-third of its words of unknown origin,** • * 

 I am doubtful how far this will be borne out by its closer 

 study. U contains a very large number of corrnptetl Malay 

 and t^undduese words; but the written symbols are pecu- 

 liar to Sumatra, In Java, where ^lalay (met with in the 

 coast towns), Hundanese (spoken tmly in the west of Java 

 and supposed to be a distinct htnguagej, and Javanese are 

 the spoken languages, Arabic is employed for expressing 

 * S trtn fords CViniiM3Tidiiira of Oe*>gra|<hr, Amtmhshi, Aji[»endix. 



