\ 
1832.] ISLAND OF SUMATRA. 147 
is quite plain, corresponding to the simplicity of manners which 
characterizes the people. In the article of bedding, they evince 
considerable taste. Each bed is furnished with several pillows, 
neatly fringed at the ends with a hght substance resembling foil. 
For chairs and stools they have, of course, no use, as they always 
sit upon mats on the floor, and generally cross-legged, like the 
Turks. Rice is always a leading dish at their meals. In their 
various kinds of curry, the knife and spoon are generally dis- 
pensed with, and the thumb and finger substituted, which are 
frequently immersed in water during the repast. 
Rice is a great article of consumption in all countries that lie 
near the equator. Like wheat in our own temperate latitudes, it 
is the tropical " staff of life." It is probable that not less than 
fifty millions of the human family depend for their sustenance 
almost exclusively upon this farinaceous and esculent article of 
food. In India, rice is called, while yet in the husk, paddee ; but 
acquires a different appellation from every process through which 
it passes. In Sumatra and the adjacent islands, this article is 
distinguished by the Malays as "upland and lowland paddee," 
a distinction, we believe, not unknown among the rice-planters of 
our own country. The upland rice, being of a superior quality • 
and more durable, always commands a higher price ; while the 
other, or lowland, is more productive, yielding a greater return ; 
and though not so durable, or by any means so nutricious, is yet 
in more general use. 
The plantations, or paddee-fields, are often prepared with great 
labour, in clearing away the aquatic shrubs with which the 
marshes or lowlands are generally overrun ; while even greater 
efforts are required in removing the venerable groves which have 
shaded the mountains for ages. The fields are sowed in Sep- 
tember or October, about the commencement of the periodical 
rains. When additional moisture becomes necessary, artificial 
irrigation is resorted to, which is easily effected, from the numer- 
ous little streams which intersect the interior of the island in 
every direction. "When the rice begins to blossom and form into 
ears, " sweet bashful pledges of delicious harvest, wafting their 
influence to the ripening sun," the water is carefully drained oif 
after which the crop rapidly advances to a state for the gatherer.. 
In the district of Manna, and that occupied by the Battoos, the 
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