198 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
is about 8 0 miles in length, and has an area of over 1700 
square miles, and as its population has been estimated at 
about a quarter of a million, it is evidently thickly in¬ 
habited. The people of the south differ essentially from 
those of the north. They are taller and more robust, their 
hair is more curly, and their cheek-bones more promi¬ 
nent, and they exhibit a fierceness and irritability quite 
foreign to the milder inhabitant of the north. Each 
village appears to be at war with its neighbours, and the 
people are confirmed head-hunters. The houses are very 
skilfully constructed, and are raised on stout piles 12 or 
15 feet from the ground, partly, it is said, on account of 
the earthquakes, which are both frequent and violent, but 
partly as a means of defence. They are oval in shape, 
and are often decorated with human heads, examples of 
the prowess of the owner against some neighbouring 
tribe. The Mas people, in spite of their barbarism, are 
good handicraftsmen, weaving cotton stuffs, forging 
weapons, and working in copper and gold. Their agri¬ 
culture is also good, the art of irrigation is understood, 
they make excellent roads, and have domestic animals, 
using oxen for ploughing. Rude attempts at carving are 
common, and statues of their deities adorn the villages, 
for the people are not Mohammedans, but pure pagans 
like the Battaks, of whom they are supposed by some to 
be an offshoot. Formerly a great trade in slaves was 
carried on, the Mas women being celebrated for their 
beauty, and even now the coast Malays of the mainland 
try to obtain them as wives. The island produces large 
quantities of coco-nut oil, but in this respect is sur¬ 
passed by the Mtcco group of islets off* its western coast, 
which Signor Modigliani describes as presenting the 
appearance of vast gardens of coco-palms, intermingled 
with plantations of rice and sweet potatoes. 
