SUMATRA 
199 
The small group known as the Batu or Bock Islands 
come next in the chain. There are three chief islands— 
Pingi, Masa, and Bala, each of which is about 30 miles 
long. Their inhabitants seem to be a similar race to the 
Mas people, with whom they keep up a friendly inter¬ 
course. There are many Malays and Chinese settled on 
the coast, the latter, as in Mas, having the whole trade 
in their hands. Upon the little islet Pulo Telo the 
Dutch have a resident Controleur. 
The Mentawi Islands are two only in number— 
Sibiru and Sipora—of which the former is much the 
larger, being not much inferior to Mas in size. The 
Nassau Islands—North and South Pagi or Poggy Islands 
—may conveniently be grouped with them as being in¬ 
habited by the same race—a people whom Yon Bosenberg 
declares to be totally distinct in physique and speech 
from any other tribe of the adjacent islands and main¬ 
land, and strikingly like the Eastern Polynesians. Their 
language is soft, full of vowels, and of a very primitive 
character, possibly possessing affinities with some of the 
Polynesian dialects. They love to decorate themselves 
with flowers, tattoo themselves on the breast, and file their 
front teeth ; all of which customs are characteristic rather 
of the Pacific Islands than Malaysia. They are very 
peaceable in disposition, firearms are unknown, and 
their only weapons are the bow and arrow. They live 
chiefly by fishing, and rice seems to be little if at all 
cultivated, their chief food being the products of the 
sago and coco palms. Professor Keane regards these 
people as possibly autochthones—•“ the only remnant 
of the western Mahoris that has escaped contact 
and fusion with the intruding sub-Mongolian and 
other Asiatic races.” Both the Nassau Island^ are 
high and densely wooded, the largest about 30 miles 
