4M TRAVELS IN THE EAST ITOIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



lands India Soon after we arrived, the cmitrokivr re- 

 ceived a letter from a Batta chief. It was nothing 

 but a piece of young Laniboo a couple of inches in 

 diameter and about six inches long. On this had 

 been scratched, with a blunt needle, characters of 

 various shapes, quite intricate, but not having by 

 any means the barbarous appeai^nce of those used 

 by the Chinese. The object of this letter was to in- 

 form the emt/rohwr that during a recent rain a bridge 

 near the rajab^s village had been washed away. Un- 

 like the Chinese languagej where every character is a 

 word, the Batta is an alphabetic language, and one 

 of their own invention. As spoken by the various 

 branches of this tribe it diffei's only to the degree of 

 dialects, and the language is, therefore, a unit. The 

 religion of this people is a belief in evil spu'its and 

 omens. The place where their aboriginal ci\nlization 

 sprang up was probably in the neighboring plateau 

 of Silindong and on the borders of Lake Toba. 

 Thence they seem to have spread over all the area 

 they now occupy in the interior and to the sea-coast 

 on either side. In later time^ the people of Menang- 

 kabau, or Malays proper, extended their power along 

 the coast and made the Battas an inland people. 



The strangest fact concerning this people, who 

 have come to such a state of ci\'ilization as to invent 

 an alphabet of their own, is, that all of them, be- 

 yond the territory under the Dutch Government, are 

 camiihals. Those living on this plain also feasted on 

 human flesh until the Dutch conquered them, and 

 obliged them to give up such a fiendish custom. 

 The rajah of Sipirok assured the governor at Padang 



