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Art. III.—An Account of the Batta Race in Sumatra
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2011
Extract
The following description of the appearance and customs of the Battas in the island of Pulo Percha, or Sumatra, has been drawn from authentic sources, and may perhaps prove acceptable to the Society.
The features of the Batta tribes are particularized by an uncommonly straight mouth. They are not very regular, but their expression is rather pleasing than otherwise. This last may gain too in the contrast it presents to the idea previously formed in the mind of an observer, of a savage—a devourer of his own species.
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- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1835
References
page 43 note 1 Reports by Mr. Prince of the late Bencoolen Civil Service, by the late Major Canning, as obtained from residents in Sumatra, and by various travellers, none of which, it is believed, have ever been published. These accounts have been lopped where too redundant, and compressed as much as possible.
page 43 note 2 History of Sumatra.
page 43 note 3 The seed of a shrub or tree.
page 44 note 1 Mr. Prince's account, sent to Captain Canning.
page 45 note 1 Good benzoin is valued in the Eastern market at about half a dollar per catty, or 1⅓ lbs.; so that the produce from one acre, reckoning that forty trees have been planted on it, may average about fifty Spanish dollars for the four harvests—a sum inadequate to pay the expenses of cultivation (where wages are given) and insure any rent.
page 45 note 2 The rapidity with which forest-trees under the tropics attain to maturity is great; but this acceleration, so unknown in cold latitudes, is attended with this defect — most of the largest trees are hollow, and when wounded deeply, a thick watery liquid pours itself out, which often resembles blood in colour.
page 46 note 1 “This account agrees with that given in Marsden's Sumatra, 3d edition, p. 149Google Scholar, but differs in many particulars from the description of the camphor-tree and its produce in the 2d edit. p. 120. Mr. Prince assures me that every information he has been able to collect confirms the accuracy of the present statement.”—Note by Captain Canning.
page 46 note 2 Major Canning doubted the existence of these slow poisons, without assigning a reason. It is, however, very easy to suppose that the effects attributed to them may be merely those which would follow the shock given to the constitution by the action of any poisonous drug on the coats of the stomach. And as superstition and fear are found to produce most melancholy effects on the minds of the natives of the East, we may attribute many of the effects above alluded to to the workings of the imagination. The drug soorn is termed by the Chinese song; also nyeen sen, or nyeen song. The sum of 100 Sp. dollars has been paid for a stick of it only four inches long. It is monopolised in China by the highest classes. Its virtues, like many other medicinal drugs highly prized in China, are, no doubt, chiefly imaginary. It is directed to be cut with a brass knife. A Chinese acquaints me that it grows in the upper provinces of China, affecting a cold climate. The Chinese consider it a universal specific, and highly restorative. It is known to the Malays under tbe term sooh, and to the Siamese by that of sóm.
page 47 note 1 This was before Bencoolen was given up.
page 47 note 2 This appears to be a very hasty assertion of Capt. Canning, from information given to him. By his own shewing, the Battas have attained to a stage of social existence which could not long endure unless its fabric was propped by some sturdy if not refined virtues. The frequency, or even the barbarity of their wars, afford unfortunately no proofs either of unmitigated barbarism, or unredeemed vices and errors.
page 47 note 3 It is pretty much the same all the world over; and it is probable that arbitrary punishments aggravated the evils complained of. Their good humour had better have been consulted instead of resorting to compulsion, where the right to compel does not seem to have existed.
page 48 note 1 By proper management, their obstinacy was subsequently overcome.
page 48 note 2 Is not this a virtue (vide p. 47), not to attack a defenceless enemy treacherously Would an American savage act so magnanimously?
page 49 note 1 A mutual understanding of convenience, or originally of humanity even, would seem best to account for this virtue in war.
page 50 note 1 It is not very probable that any one would use his teeth or nails while hatchets and knives were flourishing about the victim.