SUMATRA. 2$K 
■ately after the ad: of deftroying a friend or relation. They fpeak of them 
with a (kgree of awe, and hcfitate to call them by their common name 
ftifimimy or machaf^)^ but rather, with a degree of tendernefs, their mn- 
my (anceftors), or [ituQy (the old people) ; as really believing them 
fuch| or by way of foe thing or coaxing them ; as our ignorant country 
folk call the fairies, " the good people." When an European procures 
traps to be fet, by the means of perTons lefs fupcrftitious, thofe have been 
knovvn to go at night to the place, and pra^^lice fome forms, in order to 
perfiiadc the antraal, when caught, or when he ihall perceive the bait, 
that it was not laid by them, or with their confcnt. They talk of a 
place in the country where the tigers have a court, and maintain a regu- 
lar form of government, in towjjs^ the houfes of which are thatched with 
women's hair. It happened that in One month, feven or eight people 
were killed, by thqfe prowiing bcaAs, in Manna diil rid:; upon which 
a report became current, that fifteen hundred of them were come down 
from PafTummah ; of ivhich number^ four were without underftanding 
(guU)^ and having feparated from the reft, ran about the country occa* 
fioniog all the nnf<,hief rkat was fplr. The Allgators, almoft equally 
dellru^ive, owing to the eonftant practice of bathing in the rivers, are 
regarded with nearly the fame degree of religious terror. Fear is 
the father of fupcTftitton, by ignorance. Thefe two animals prove the 
Sumatran's greatcft fcourge. The mifchief the former commit, is 
incredible^ whole villages being often depopulated by Them. The people 
leam to reverence, as fupernatural effects, the furious ravages of an cue- 
,my they h?ve not refolution to oppofe- 
In fome parts likewife ; but chiefly to the fourhward i they fuper- syperftf,;oi,g 
iitioufly beUeve, tjiat certain treeSj particularly thofe of a venerable ap- «p'"'""5' 
pearance (as an old jawee jawee or banian tree) are the refidencc, or ra- 
ther the material frame of fpirits of the woods-; an opinion which exadly 
anfvrers to the idea entertained by the ancients, of the dryadu and hama* 
dryadcs. At Benmnat^ in the Lampcon country, there is a long Hone, 
Handing on a flat one, fuppofed by the people to pofTcfs extraordinary 
T t t power 
