162 
VOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC. 
[February, 
sober, living principally on vegetables, while their only beverage 
is water, taken in cocoanut-shells from the limpid stream ; and 
though they will kill a fowl or a goat for a stranger, whom per- 
haps they never saw before, nor ever expect to see again, they 
are seldom known to indulge in such luxuries themselves ; not 
even at their festivals, where the entertainment is prepared with 
meats in abundance, are they known to indulge to excess. In 
manners they are simple, in apprehension quick, and by no 
means wanting in sagacity. Their women are modest, and 
evince a good share of sensibility. In deportment they are grave, 
and always courteous and guarded in their expressions. This is 
the bright side of the picture. On the other side are represented 
litigations, indolence, incorrigible gambling, dishonesty in their 
dealings with strangers — deemed among them no moral defect — 
suspiciousness, want of regard for truth, meanness in their trans- 
actions, and improvidence of the future. The latter can scarcely be 
charged as a crime to them, for the climate in a great measure has 
made them improvident, as it makes all people, more or less, when 
nature, with wonderful facility, supplies all that is essential to 
existence. 
South of Indrapoor, once the seat of a considerable monarchy 
ill the southern portion of the island, is the country of the Rejangs, 
who live in villages, or doosoons, each under the government of 
a magistrate called dupatty ; while the chief, who presides over 
and governs all, is called pangeran. But among a people without 
arts, without industry, and above all, without property, the au- 
thority of the prince must be limited, and his government founded 
on opinion, and the obedience and submission of his subjects 
voluntary. So it is with the Rejangs ; so it has ever been with 
primitive man ; and so it is with other governments throughout 
the island. Where the natives have been subjugated by foreign 
powers, held by the spirit of conquest long in subjection, the 
feudal maxims may be seen to prevail ; while those who have 
occupied remote situations, from disposition, or no matter from 
what cause, have remained undisturbed and unaffected by the 
various changes which have been going on around them : there 
may still be seen the rules, the simplicity, of patriarchal life. 
In appointing the heads of the doosoons, the pangeran does little 
elsa than confirm the nominations of the people themselves. The 
