SUMATRA. 
of that religion, which have found their way to Sumatra ; nor are even 
the ceremotiial parts very fcrupuloufly adhered to. Many who profefa 
to follow it, give themfelves not the leaft concern about it*s injimdtions, 
or even know what they require. A Malay at Manna, upbraided 
a ceuM/ymaf/^ with the total ignorance of religion, his nation labored 
under. You pay a veneration to the tombs of your anceftors : what 
foundation have you for fuppofing that your dead anceftors can lend you 
afiiftance?" "It may be true; anfivered the other; but what foun- 
dation have you, for expecting affiitance frain M»k and Mahomet Are 
you not aware; replied the Malay; that it is written in a Bock: have 
you not heard of the Karaan The native of Pajfummah, with con- 
fcious inferiority, fubniitted to the force of this argument. 
If by religion is meant a public or private form of worfhip^ of any 
kind and if prayers, procciSonSa meetings, ofFerings, images, or priefts, 
are any of them necefiary to conftltute it^ I can pronounce that the E£' 
jangs are totally without religion^ and cannot, with propriety, be even 
termed Pagans^ if that, as T apprehend, eojiveys the idea of miftaken 
worfhip. Tliey neither worftiip God, devils nor idol. They are not^ 
however I without fuperflltious beliefs of many kinds, and have cer- 
tainly a confufed notion ; though perhaps derived from their intcrcourfe 
with other people; of fome fpecies of fuperior beings, who have the 
power of rendering themfelves vifible or invifible, at pleafure. Thcfs 
they call orang akos" " fine, or impalpable men,'* and regard them as 
poffeiBtig the faculty of doing them good or evil ; deprecating their 
wrath, as the fenfe of prefent misfortunes, or apprehenfaotl of future, 
prevails in their minds* But when they fpeak particularly of them, they 
call them , by the appellations of makykat*'^ and jian^? which are 
the angels, and evil fpirits of the Arabians^ and the idea may probably 
have been, borrowed, at the fame time with the names. Thefe arc the 
powers they alfo refer to, in an oath. I have heard a dupatty fay, " my 
grandfather took an oath that he would not demand the joojoor of that 
woman, and imprecated a curfe on any of histicfcendants that fhould 
da it ; I never have, nor could I without [<ila ka^ada mahy^at-^zn of- 
fence 
