440 TRAVELS IN THE BAST UmiAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



The rajah now showed me a spot by the wayside 

 where a Batta^ who had been guilty of adiilteiy, 

 had been lolled and eaten by his fellows not long 

 before. All the others in the party confirmed the 

 story in every pai'ticular. A little farther on was a 

 Batta \illage consisting of four houses on high posts. 

 One was small and stood apart from the others, and 

 in that they stored theii* rice. To prevent the mice 

 from reaching it, large projecting pieces of planks 

 were placed on the tops of the posts. The walls, 

 floor, and gable-ends of the dwelling-houses were 

 made of plank, and the roof was a thatching of grass 

 or straw. Having some cui'iosity to see the intenial 

 arrangements of a Batta house, I climbed up a ladder 

 of five or six rounds at one end of the building, and 

 took a place assigned me on the floor. There was no 

 bench nor stool, nor any thing of the kind, so^ ac- 

 cording to Batta etiqtiette, I rested my back against 

 the side of the house. The whole buildins? was in 

 one room, T^ithout a shadow of any partition. From 

 the number of the inmates, I saw that probably four 

 families dwelt in this single apartment, and this sus- 

 picion was strengtbened wben I noticed a rude fire- 

 place, without any chimney, in eacb comer. On 

 inquiry, I was informed that my conjectures were 

 true* ^' But how do you know," I asked, " what 

 part belongs to one family and what to another ? 

 Where is your partition ? " One of them, who could 

 understand a little Malay, gravely rose, and, coming 

 to my side in answer to my query, pointed to a cra^ 

 in the floor. 



From this place the rajah bad said I could obtain 



