THE BINUA OF J Oil ORE. 
267 
the activity, relish and high good humour with which tlie viands are 
discussed, it is very apparent that the Binua is blessed with a strong 
appetite and looks upon the satisfying of it as the main end of life. 
The children are in general over fed, and even those who are natu¬ 
rally vivacious seem with difficulty to resist the lethargic influence of 
cramming with potatoes boiled in hogs grease, a kind of food with 
which their natural nutriment is eked out from the third or fourth 
day of their existence. This may he owing to the habit of not weaning 
children till they are two, three, and sometimes even four years of 
age. It is not an uncommon spectacle to see the infant of a few 
weeks and the fat nursling of two years at the breast together. In¬ 
dulged as the children are during their infancy they no sooner arrive 
at an age when their labour can be of any use, than they are made to 
assist their parents in their different employments. The effect of this 
training is that the young Binua men and women are highly robust 
and active compared with the Malays, and capable of enduring with 
cheerfulness an amount of labour from which the latter would shrink. 
The husband cannot beat the wife for any cause, and such is also 
the adat of the. Mintira and probably of all the other tribes. Should a 
Mintira woman offend her husband he complains to her parents who 
chastise her. She has a reciprocal protection from the parents of-the 
husband. Should the husband commit a serious offence against the 
wife her relatives complain to the Batin who authorizes them to deal 
summarily with him. They repair to his house and strip it of every 
article in it. The goods are carried to the Batfii who gives a part 
to the wife's relatives and apportions the remainder between himself 
and his officers. 
The good humour and cheerfulness of the Binua are amongst their 
most striking characteristics. Their minds are free from thought 
and free from care. They are timid, but at the same time perfectly 
independent, and, while entirely exempt from all slavishness of man¬ 
ner or address and wanting in that peculiar courtesy which distin¬ 
guishes the Malay, are thoroughly respectful. While jin address they 
are abrupt and open, they have the same natural softness of manner 
and unwillingness to offend which characterise the uncontaurinated 
Malay. Their plainness and modesty of manner is accompanied by 
a mental candor and truthfulluess which the Malay regards as bar¬ 
barous simplicity, but which must attract the sympathy and good will 
of the. European in a strong degree, and place them in his estimation 
far above all the more civilized Asiatic races with whom he is famili¬ 
ar. Amongst the Binua he feels as if the oppressive moral atmos- 
