692 SUMATRA. 
is also manufactured in various parts of the island, but loss 
in the southern provinces than among the people of Menan- 
cabow, the Battas, and the Acheenese, whose frequent wars 
demand large supplies. The powder is very imperfectly 
granulated, being often hastily prepared in small quantities 
for immediate use. Salt is mostly supplied by cargoes im¬ 
ported, but they also manufacture it themselves by a very 
tedious process. But of all their manufactures, their work 
in fine gold and silver filagree has been most admired, and it 
deserves the greater admiration, considering the coarse tools 
with which it is made, and which, in the hands of a Euro¬ 
pean, would not be thought fit for the most ordinary pur¬ 
poses, being rudely and inartificially formed by the gold¬ 
smith from any old iron he can procure. From a piece of 
old iron hoop the wire drawing instrument is made; a 
hammer head stuck in a block serves for an anvil; and a 
pair of compasses is seen composed of two old nails tied to¬ 
gether at one end. The gold is fused in a piece of a rice 
pot. In general they use no bellows, but blow the fire with 
their mouths through a joint of bamboo. If the quantity of 
gold to be melted be considerable, three or four persons sit 
around their furnace, which is an old iron pot, and blow 
altogether. By a series of nice operations, the gold is formed 
into leaves, which are afterwards put together, and being 
united with a solder of gold filings and borax, moistened 
with water, and spread over them with a feather, the whole 
is put into the fire for a short time, until it becomes united. 
The Chinese also make filagree, mostly of silver, which is 
very elegant; but it wants the extraordinary delicacy of the 
Malayan work. The inhabitants of Sumatra are particularly 
expert in the manufacture of fishing nets, and in making 
springs for catching birds. They have many of them a 
remarkably fine aim; but the mode of letting off the match¬ 
locks, which are the pieces most habitual to them, precludes 
the possibility of shooting flying. 
The art of medicine among the Sumatrans consists in the 
application of simples, which are the juices of certain trees 
and herbs. These are administered internally, or externally 
by means of a poultice put on the breast or part affect¬ 
ed. In fevers they give a decoction of herbs, or bathe 
the patient for two or three mornings in warm water. If 
this does not prove effectual, they pour on him, during the 
paroxysm, a quantity of cold water, which brings on copious 
perspiration. Pains and swellings in the limbs are likewise 
cured by perspiration. There are two sorts of leprosy to 
which the inhabitants are subject. In the milder species, 
the skin is covered with a white scurf or scales, which ren¬ 
ders them loathsome to the sight. In the more fatal sort, few 
instances of recovery are known; the skin comes off in 
flakes, and the flesh is corrupted. The small pox sometimes 
visits the island, and makes terrible ravages. In cases of 
insanity, they imagine the patient seized by an evil spirit, 
which is exorcised in the following manner. He is shut 
up in a hut, which is set on fire about his ears, and he is 
allowed to make his escape through the flames in the best 
manner he can. Their notions of astronomy and geogra¬ 
phy are extremely imperfect. They are fond of music, 
and have several instruments, most of which are derived 
from the Chinese. 
The Malayan language is everywhere spoken along the 
coasts of Sumatra. It prevails also in the inland country of 
Menancabow and its immediate dependencies, and is under¬ 
stood in almost every part of the island. Their writing is in 
the Arabic character, and many Arabic words are incorpor¬ 
ated with the Malayan. Besides the Malayan, there is a 
variety of languages spoken in Sumatra, which, however, 
have not only a manifest affinity among themselves, but also 
to that general language which is found to prevail in, and to 
be indigenous to, all the islands of the Eastern sea, from 
Madagascar to the remotest of Captain Cook’s discoveries, 
comprehending a wider extent than the Roman, or any 
other tongue, has yet boasted. The other principal lan¬ 
guages of Sumatra are the Batta, the Rejang, and the Lam- 
pong ; the difference between them being chiefly marked by 
ibeir being expressed in distinct written characters. They 
write on the inner bark of a tree, and on bamboos, and form 
their lines from the left hand towards the right. 
Among the modern political divisions of the island, the 
principal are the empire of Menancabow and the Malays; 
in the next place, the Acheenese; then the Battas, the 
Rejangs; and next to them the people of Lampong. The 
chain of islands which extends in a line nearly parallel to 
the western coast, at the distance of little more than a degree, 
are inhabited by a race or races of people, apparently from 
the same original stock as those of the interior of Sumatra. 
Their genuineness of character has been preserved to a remark¬ 
able degree, whilst the islands on the eastern side are uniformly 
peopled with Malays. Until about 100 years ago, the south¬ 
ern coast of Sumatra, as far as the Urei river, was dependent 
on the king of Bantam in Java, whose lieutenant came 
yearly to Bencoolen or Sillebar, to collect pepper, and fill 
up the vacancies. Almost all the forms of government 
throughout Sumatraareamixtureofthefedual and patriarchal; 
but the system of government among the people near the sea 
coast is much influenced by the power of the Europeans, 
who exercise, in fact, the functions of sovereignty, and with 
great advantage to their subjects. The districts over which 
the East India Company’s influence extends are preserved in 
a state of uninterrupted peace; and were it not for this 
coercion, every village would be in a state of perpetual 
hostility with its neighbour. The form of government 
among the Kejangs applies generally to the Orangulu, or 
inhabitants of the interior. Among the hills and woods, 
property in land depends upon occupancy, unless where 
fruit trees have been planted ; and as there is seldom any 
determined boundary between neighbouring villages, such 
marks are rarely disturbed. The laws of the Sumatrans are 
properly a set of long established customs, handed down to 
them from their ancestors, the authority for which is founded 
in usage and general consent. The law which renders all 
the members of a family reciprocally bound for each others’ 
debts, forms a strong connection among them. When a 
man dies, his effects descend to his children in equal shares. 
The Sumatran code admits of a pecuniary compensation for 
murder, on which account their laws take no cognizance of 
the distinction between a wilful murder and what we term 
manslaughter. Corporeal punishment of any kind is rare. 
All gaming is rigorously prohibited by the laws, though 
these" laws are often broken ; and theft is punished by the 
restoration of double the value of the goods stolen, and a 
fine, in addition, of 28 dollars. Assaults, violences, and 
even murders, are all compensated by fines, increasing in 
proportion to the enormity of the offence. The place of the 
greatest solemnity for administering an oath, is the burying 
ground of their ancestors; and they have certain reliques, or 
swearing apparatus, which they produce, on important 
occasions. These generally consist of an old broken creese, 
a broken gun barrel, some copper bullets, or any thing else 
to which chance or caprice has annexed the idea of extra¬ 
ordinary virtue. These they generally dip in water, which 
the person who swears drinks off, after pronouncing a form 
of words. At Manna the relique most venerated is a gun 
barrel, which, when produced to be sworn on, is carried to 
the spot wrapt up in silk, and under an umbrella. The 
Sumatran, impressed with the idea of invisible powers, but 
not of his own immortality, regards with awe the supposed 
instruments of their agency, and swears on creeses, bullets, 
and gun barrels, weapons of personal destruction. The right 
of slavery is established in Sumatra, as it is throughout the east, 
and has been all over the world : yet but few instances occur 
of the country people actually having slaves; though they 
are common enough in the Malayan or sea-port towns. 
Their domestics and labourers are either dependent 
relations, or insolvent debtors. The simple manners of the 
people require that their servants should live, in a great 
measure, on a footing of equality with the rest of the family, 
which is inconsistent with the authority necessary to be 
maintained over slaves. At Bencoolen, the East India Com¬ 
pany have a body of negro slaves, who are said to be 
humanely treated, to be well clothed and well fed, and not to 
