192 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
based on the Dewanagiri. The communal system, so 
widely spread in Sumatra, obtains among them, and the 
tribal divisions are known as sukus , as in the Menang- 
kabo lands, although the headmen and chiefs have the 
Javanese appellations of Pangerang and Adhipatti. Java¬ 
nese influence, indeed, has no doubt left its impress upon 
these as upon other of the southern peoples of the 
island, and has given them a good deal of their civilisa¬ 
tion. Mr. Marsden’s description of the character of the 
Sumatran native is in reality drawn from the Rejang 
people, and as it is more or less accurate even at the 
present day, it may be reproduced here. “ The Sumatran 
of the interior,'” he says, “ though partaking in some 
degree of the Malayan vices, possesses many exclusive 
virtues, but they are more of the negative than the posi¬ 
tive kind. He is mild, peaceable, and forbearing, unless 
his anger be roused by violent provocation, when he is 
implacable in his resentments. He is temperate and 
sober, being equally abstemious in meat and drink. The 
diet of the natives is mostly vegetable. Water is their 
only beverage, and although they kill a fowl or a goat 
for a stranger, they are rarely guilty of that extrava¬ 
gance for themselves ; not even at their festivals, where 
there is plenty of meat, do they eat much of anything 
but rice. Their hospitality is extreme, and bounded by 
their ability alone. Their manners are simple ; they 
are generally, except among the chiefs, devoid of the 
Malay cunning and chicane, yet endued with quickness 
of apprehension, and on many occasions discovering a 
considerable degree of penetration and sagacity. They 
are modest, particularly guarded in their expressions, 
courteous in their behaviour, grave in their deportment, 
being seldom or never excited to laughter, and patient 
to a great degree. On the other hand, they are litigious, 
