SUMATRA. 
219 
not prove fuch an obftacle to matrimony as is fuppofed. Was it indeed 
tnie that every man was obliged to remain fingle, till he had accumu- 
lated, from the produce of his pepper gardcti, a Cum adequate to the 
purchafc of a wife, married pairs would truly be fcarce. But the peo- 
ple have other refources ; there are few families who are not in pofleffion 
of fome fmall fubftance ; they breed goats and buifaloc?, and in general 
keep in refervc fome fmall fum for particular purpoles. The purchafc 
money of the daughters ferves alfo to provide wives for the Tons, Cer* 
tain hhy that dte fathen* aic rarely at a lofs for money to proairc them 
wives, fo foon as they become marriageable. In the diftri<5i:s under my 
charge are about eight thoufand inhabitants^ among whom, I do not 
conceive it would be poffible to find ten inftances of men of the age of 
thirty years unmarried* We muft then feek for other caufes of the 
paucity of inhabifarits, and indeed they arc fufficiently obvious ; among 
thefe^ wc may reckon that the women are by nature unprolific, and 
ccafe gcflation at an early age; that almofl totally unfkilled in the mc- 
'dical art, numbers fa'fl victims to the endemic difeafcs of a climate, near- 
ly as fatal to its indigenous mhabitants, as to the Itrangers whtt fi^ttic nmong 
them: to whicb we may add^ that the indolence and inactivity of the 
-natives, tend to relax and enervate the bodily frame, and to abridge the 
natural period of their lives." 
The modes of marriage, according to the original Inftituttons of thefe Modes of 
people, are by jcojcsr, by amhl am^ or by femundo* The jocjoor is a "^'^^^^ 
certain fum of money, given by one man to another, as a confidcratlon 
for the perfon of his daughter, whofe fituation, in this cafe, differs not 
much from that of a llave to the man (he marries, and to his family. His 
abfoiute property in her depends however upon ibme nice circumftances, 
Befide the batang joojow (or main fum), there ate certain appendages or 
branches ; one of which, the taJlee kooto of five dollars, is ufually, froni 
motives of delicacy, or friendihip, left unpaid, and fo long as that is 
the cafe, a relatlonihip is underftood to fubfift between the two families, 
and the parents of the woman have a right to interfere on occaiions of 
ill treatment: the hufband is alfo liable to be fined for wounding her j 
K k k with 
mar* 
