347 
A GENERAL SKETCH OF SUMATRA. 
ticular localities, it is necessary to mention first. They 
are at the opposite extremes of the civilization of the 
island. The one is a half wild people, the scattered rem¬ 
nants of the aboriginal inhabitants, now broken by oppres¬ 
sion and solitary confinement for centuries in the jungly 
mountains, into a number of disconnected patches of com¬ 
munities, differing, it is probable, considerably in language 
and little in condition and ideas. Most of the notices of 
them are so meagre that they do nothing more than prove 
the fact of their existence in widely separated parts of 
Sumatra. Thus in the north, where they are known under 
the name of Orang Lubu, the Batas describe them as having 
inhabited Pertibi before they occupied it. * They are 
found up the Mandau above Siak. f In the south again 
they are mentioned under the name of Orang Kubu by 
Marsden and other writers who resided on the west coast, 
and we know from information received from Malays that 
they are found in the interiour on ascending most'of the 
large rivers whose embouchures are on the east coast. 
Major Sturler in his account of Paleinbang gives a particu¬ 
lar description of the Otang Kubu, who in condition and 
habits entirely agree with the wilder tribes of the Malay 
Peninsula. The same remark applies to the Orang Gnnong 
of Banka. The southern extremity of the mountain belt is 
inhabited by the Orang Abung, a head hunting race. These 
are the mountain nomades, but there are also half wild 
people, some living in boats in the salt water creeks, and 
others in the sago fore.-ts and low jungles of the east coast. 
In this lowest cl.iss of Sumatran tribes should be included 
those inhabiting some of the western islands, such as the 
Enganoans. 
i heir physical resemblance to the Malays is everywhere 
remarked, and, as I formerly sta edj, there seems no room to 
doubt that they are the aborigines of the Malayan region 
of Sumatra, and the remnants of the stock from which the 
present Malays have descended. Their number may be 
provisionally assumed at 6,0UU.§ 
II. Orang Malayu (Malays.) 
We now proceed to the Malay races themselves, the 
* Wilier, Tijd. v. N. Ind. 8th y. 2d part p. 402, 
f J. Anderson, Mission to Sumatra p. 341). 
+ Journ. Ind. Arch. vol. n p. p. 332, 517, notes 
§ The Abung and K vbu in the south appear to near about 2,000, 
