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THE THIRD EDITION, WITH CORRECTIONS, ADDITIONS, AND PLATES.
THE THIRD EDITION, WITH CORRECTIONS, ADDITIONS, AND PLATES.
PLATE 16. A MALAY BOY, NATIVE OF BENCOOLEN. T. Heaphy delt. A. Cardon fecit. Published by W. Marsden, 1810. CONTENTS. PREFACE. CHAPTER 1. SITUATION. NAME. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY, ITS MOUNTAINS, LAKES, AND RIVERS. AIR AND METEORS. MONSOONS, AND LAND AND SEA-BREEZES. MINERALS AND FOSSILS. VOLCANOES. EARTHQUAKES. SURFS AND TIDES. CHAPTER 2. DISTINCTION OF INHABITANTS. REJANGS CHOSEN FOR GENERAL DESCRIPTION. PERSONS AND COMPLEXION. CLOTHING AND ORNAMENTS. CHAPTER 3. VILLAGES. BUILDINGS.
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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
The island of Sumatra, which, in point of situation and extent, holds a conspicuous rank on the terraqueous globe, and is surpassed by few in the bountiful indulgences of nature, has in all ages been unaccountably neglected by writers insomuch that it is at this day less known, as to the interior parts more especially, than the remotest island of modern discovery; although it has been constantly resorted to by Europeans for some centuries, and the English have had a regular establishment there f
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CHAPTER 1.
CHAPTER 1.
SITUATION. NAME. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY, ITS MOUNTAINS, LAKES, AND RIVERS. AIR AND METEORS. MONSOONS, AND LAND AND SEA-BREEZES. MINERALS AND FOSSILS. VOLCANOES. EARTHQUAKES. SURFS AND TIDES. If antiquity holds up to us some models, in different arts and sciences, which have been found inimitable, the moderns, on the other hand, have carried their inventions and improvements, in a variety of instances, to an extent and a degree of perfection of which the former could entertain no idea
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CHAPTER 2.
CHAPTER 2.
DISTINCTION OF INHABITANTS. REJANGS CHOSEN FOR GENERAL DESCRIPTION. PERSONS AND COMPLEXION. CLOTHING AND ORNAMENTS. GENERAL ACCOUNT OF THE INHABITANTS. Having exhibited a general view of the island as it is in the hands of nature, I shall now proceed to a description of the people who inhabit and cultivate it, and shall endeavour to distinguish the several species or classes of them in such a manner as may best tend to perspicuity, and to furnish clear ideas of the matter. VARIOUS MODES OF DIVIS
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CHAPTER 3.
CHAPTER 3.
VILLAGES. BUILDINGS. DOMESTIC UTENSILS. FOOD. I shall now attempt a description of the villages and buildings of the Sumatrans, and proceed to their domestic habits of economy, and those simple arts on which the procuring of their food and other necessaries depends. These are not among the least interesting objects of philosophical speculation. In proportion as the arts in use with any people are connected with the primary demands of nature, they carry the greater likelihood of originality, beca
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CHAPTER 4.
CHAPTER 4.
AGRICULTURE. RICE, ITS CULTIVATION, ETC. PLANTATIONS OF COCONUT, BETEL-NUT, AND OTHER VEGETABLES FOR DOMESTIC USE. DYE STUFFS. AGRICULTURE. From their domestic economy I am led to take a view of their labours in the field, their plantations and the state of agriculture amongst them, which an ingenious writer esteems the justest criterion of civilisation. RICE. The most important article of cultivation, not in Sumatra alone but throughout the East, is rice. It is the grand material of food on whi
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CHAPTER 5.
CHAPTER 5.
FRUITS, FLOWERS, MEDICINAL SHRUBS AND HERBS. FRUITS. Nature, says a celebrated writer,* seems to have taken a pleasure in assembling in the Malayan countries her most favourite productions; and with truth I think it may be affirmed that no region of the earth can boast an equal abundance and variety of indigenous fruits; for although the whole of those hereafter enumerated cannot be considered as such, yet there is reason to conclude that the greater part may, for the natives, who never appear t
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CHAPTER 6.
CHAPTER 6.
BEASTS. REPTILES. FISH. BIRDS. INSECTS. BEASTS. The animal kingdom claims attention, but, the quadrupeds of the island being in general the same as are found elsewhere throughout the East, already well described, I shall do little more than furnish a list of those which have occurred to my notice; adding a few observations on such as may appear to require them. BUFFALO. The karbau, or buffalo, constituting a principal part of the food of the natives, and, being the only animal employed in their
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CHAPTER 7.
CHAPTER 7.
VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF THE ISLAND CONSIDERED AS ARTICLES OF COMMERCE. PEPPER. CULTIVATION OF PEPPER. CAMPHOR. BENZOIN. CASSIA, ETC. PLATE 1. THE PEPPER-PLANT, PIPER NIGRUM. E.W. Marsden delt. Engraved by J. Swaine, Queen Street, Golden Square. Published by W. Marsden, 1810. PEPPER. OF those productions of Sumatra, which are regarded as articles of commerce, the most important and most abundant is pepper. This is the object of the East India Company's trade thither, and this alone it keeps in i
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CHAPTER 8.
CHAPTER 8.
GOLD, TIN, AND OTHER METALS. BEESWAX. IVORY. BIRDS-NEST, ETC. IMPORT-TRADE. GOLD. Beside those articles of trade afforded by the vegetable kingdom Sumatra produces many others, the chief of which is gold. This valuable metal is found mostly in the central parts of the island; none (or with few exceptions) being observed to the southward of Limun, a branch of Jambi River, nor to the northward of Nalabu, from which port Achin is principally supplied. Menangkabau has always been esteemed the riches
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CHAPTER 9.
CHAPTER 9.
ARTS AND MANUFACTURES. ART OF MEDICINE. SCIENCES. ARITHMETIC . GEOGRAPHY. ASTRONOMY. MUSIC, ETC. ARTS AND MANUFACTURES. I shall now take a view of those arts and manufactures which the Sumatrans are skilled in, and which are not merely domestic but contribute rather to the conveniences, and in some instances to the luxuries, than to the necessaries of life. I must remind the reader that my observations on this subject are mostly drawn from the Rejangs, or those people of the island who are upon
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CHAPTER 10.
CHAPTER 10.
LANGUAGES. MALAYAN. ARABIC CHARACTER USED. LANGUAGES OF THE INTERIOR PEOPLE. PECULIAR CHARACTERS. SPECIMENS OF LANGUAGES AND OF ALPHABETS. LANGUAGES. Before I proceed to an account of the laws, customs, and manners of the people of the island it is necessary that I should say something of the different languages spoken on it, the diversity of which has been the subject of much contemplation and conjecture. MALAYAN. The Malayan language, which has commonly been supposed original in the peninsula
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CHAPTER 11.
CHAPTER 11.
COMPARATIVE STATE OF THE SUMATRANS IN CIVIL SOCIETY. DIFFERENCE OF CHARACTER BETWEEN THE MALAYS AND OTHER INHABITANTS. GOVERNMENT. TITLES AND POWER OF THE CHIEFS AMONG THE REJANGS. INFLUENCE OF THE EUROPEANS. GOVERNMENT IN PASSUMMAH. COMPARATIVE STATE OF SUMATRANS IN SOCIETY. Considered as a people occupying a certain rank in the scale or civil society, it is not easy to determine the proper situation of the inhabitants of this island. Though far distant from that point to which the polished sta
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CHAPTER 12.
CHAPTER 12.
LAWS AND CUSTOMS. MODE OF DECIDING CAUSES. CODE OF LAWS. LAWS OR CUSTOMS. There is no word in the languages of the island which properly and strictly signifies law; nor is there any person or class of persons among the Rejangs regularly invested with a legislative power. They are governed in their various disputes by a set of long-established customs (adat), handed down to them from their ancestors, the authority of which is founded on usage and general consent. The chiefs, in pronouncing their
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CHAPTER 13.
CHAPTER 13.
REMARKS ON, AND ELUCIDATION OF, THE VARIOUS LAWS AND CUSTOMS. MODES OF PLEADING. NATURE OF EVIDENCE. OATHS. INHERITANCE. OUTLAWRY. THEFT, MURDER, AND COMPENSATION FOR IT. ACCOUNT OF A FEUD. DEBTS. SLAVERY. REMARKS ON THE FOREGOING LAWS. The foregoing system of the adat, or customs of the country, being digested chiefly for the use of the natives, or of persons well acquainted with their manners in general, and being designed, not for an illustration of the customs, but simply as a standard of ri
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CHAPTER 14.
CHAPTER 14.
MODES OF MARRIAGE, AND CUSTOMS RELATIVE THERETO. POLYGAMY. FESTIVALS. GAMES. COCK-FIGHTING. USE AND EFFECTS OF OPIUM. MOTIVES FOR ALTERING SOME OF THEIR MARRIAGE CUSTOMS. By much the greater number of the legal disputes among these people have their source in the intricacy attending their marriage contracts. In most uncivilized countries these matters are very simple, the dictates of nature being obeyed, or the calls of appetite satisfied, with little ceremony or form of convention; but with the
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CHAPTER 15.
CHAPTER 15.
CUSTOM OF CHEWING BETEL. EMBLEMATIC PRESENTS. ORATORY. CHILDREN. NAMES. CIRCUMCISION. FUNERALS. RELIGION. CUSTOM OF CHEWING BETEL. Whether to blunt the edge of painful reflection, or owing to an aversion our natures have to total inaction, most nations have been addicted to the practice of enjoying by mastication or otherwise the flavour of substances possessing an inebriating quality. The South Americans chew the cocoa and mambee, and the eastern people the betel and areca, or, as they are call
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CHAPTER 16.
CHAPTER 16.
THE COUNTRY OF LAMPONG AND ITS INHABITANTS. LANGUAGE. GOVERNMENT. WARS. PECULIAR CUSTOMS. RELIGION. Having thus far spoken of the manners and customs of the Rejangs more especially, and adverted, as occasion served, to those of the Passummah people, who nearly resemble them, I shall now present a cursory view of those circumstances in which their southern neighbours, the inhabitants of the Lampong country, differ from them, though this dissimilitude is not very considerable; and shall add such i
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CHAPTER 17.
CHAPTER 17.
ACCOUNT OF THE INLAND COUNTRY OF KORINCHI. EXPEDITION TO THE SERAMPEI AND SUNGEI-TENANG COUNTRIES. COUNTRY OF KORINCHI. At the back of the range of high mountains by which the countries of Indrapura and Anak-sungei are bounded lies the district or valley of Korinchi, which, from its secluded situation, has hitherto been little known to Europeans. In the year 1800 Mr. Charles Campbell, whose name I have had frequent occasion to mention, was led to visit this spot, in the laudable pursuit of objec
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CHAPTER 18.
CHAPTER 18.
MALAYAN STATES. ANCIENT EMPIRE OF MENANGKABAU. ORIGIN OF THE MALAYS AND GENERAL ACCEPTATION OF NAME. EVIDENCES OF THEIR MIGRATION FROM SUMATRA. SUCCESSION OF MALAYAN PRINCES. PRESENT STATE OF THE EMPIRE. TITLES OF THE SULTAN. CEREMONIES. CONVERSION TO MAHOMETAN RELIGION. LITERATURE. ARTS. WARFARE. GOVERNMENT. MALAYAN STATES. I shall now take a more particular view of the Malayan states, as distinguished from those of the people termed orang ulu or countrymen, and orang dusun or villagers, who, n
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CHAPTER 19.
CHAPTER 19.
KINGDOMS OF INDRAPURA, ANAK-SUNGEI, PASSAMMAN, SIAK. INDRAPURA. Among the earliest dismemberments of the Menangkabau empire was the establishment of Indrapura as an independent kingdom. Though now in its turn reduced to a state of little importance, it was formerly powerful in comparison with its neighbours, and of considerable magnitude, including Anak-Sungei and extending as far as Kattaun. Some idea of its antiquity may be formed from a historical account given by the Sultan of Bantam to the
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CHAPTER 20.
CHAPTER 20.
THE COUNTRY OF THE BATTAS. TAPPANULI-BAY. JOURNEY INTO THE INTERIOR. CASSIA-TREES. GOVERNMENTS. ARMS. WARFARE. TRADE. FAIRS. FOOD. MANNERS. LANGUAGE. WRITING. RELIGION. FUNERALS. CRIMES. EXTRAORDINARY CUSTOM. BATTAS. One of the most considerable distinctions of people in the island, and by many regarded as having the strongest claims to originality, is the nation of the Battas (properly Batak), whose remarkable dissimilitude to the other inhabitants, in the genius of their customs and manners, a
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CHAPTER 21.
CHAPTER 21.
KINGDOM OF ACHIN. ITS CAPITAL. AIR. INHABITANTS. COMMERCE. MANUFACTURES. NAVIGATION. COIN. GOVERNMENT. REVENUES. PUNISHMENTS. Achin (properly Acheh) is the only kingdom of Sumatra that ever arrived to such a degree of political consequence in the eyes of the western people as to occasion its transactions becoming the subject of general history. But its present condition is widely different from what it was when by its power the Portuguese were prevented from gaining a footing in the island, and
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CHAPTER 22.
CHAPTER 22.
HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF ACHIN, FROM THE PERIOD OF ITS BEING VISITED BY EUROPEANS. PROCEEDINGS OF THE PORTUGUESE. The Portuguese, under the conduct of Vasco de Gama, doubled the Cape of Good Hope in the year 1497, and arrived on the coast of Malabar in the following year. These people, whom the spirit of glory, commerce, and plunder led to the most magnanimous undertakings, were not so entirely engaged by their conquests on the continent of India as to prevent them from extending their views to
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CHAPTER 23.
CHAPTER 23.
BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE ISLANDS LYING OFF THE WESTERN COAST OF SUMATRA. ISLANDS ADJACENT TO SUMATRA. The chain of islands which extends itself in a line nearly parallel to the western coast, at the distance from it of little more than a degree, being immediately connected with the principal subject of this work, and being themselves inhabited by a race or races of people apparently from the same original stock as those of the interior of Sumatra, whose genuineness of character has been preserved to
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