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 DIVISION.
The most obvious division, and which has been usually made by the writers
of voyages, is that of Mahometan inhabitants of the sea-coast, and Pagans
of the inland country. This division, though not without its degree of
propriety, is vague and imperfect; not only because each description of
people differ considerably among themselves, but that the inland
inhabitants are, in some places, Mahometans, and those of the coast, in
others, what they term Pagans. It is not unusual with persons who have
not resided in this part of the East to call the inhabitants of the
islands indiscriminately by the name of Malays. This is a more
considerable error, and productive of greater confusion than the former.
By attempting to reduce things to heads too general we defeat the very
end we propose to ourselves in defining them at all: we create obscurity
where we wish to throw light. On the other hand, to attempt enumerating
and distinguishing the variety, almost endless, of petty sovereignties
and nations into which this island is divided, many of which differ
nothing in person or manners from their neighbours, would be a task both
insurmountable and useless. I shall aim at steering a middle course, and
accordingly shall treat of the inhabitants of Sumatra under the following
summary distinctions, taking occasion as it may offer to mention the
principal subdivisions. And first it is proper to distinguish the empire
of Menangkabau and the Malays; in the next place the Achinese; then the
Battas; the Rejangs; and next to them the people of Lampong.*
(*Footnote. In the course of my inquiries amongst the natives concerning
the aborigines of the island I have been informed of two different
species of people dispersed in the woods and avoiding all communication
with the other inhabitants. These they call Orang Kubu and Orang Gugu.
The former are said to be pretty numerous, especially in that part of the
country which lies between Palembang and Jambi. Some have at times been
caught and kept as slaves in Labun; and a man of that place is now
married to a tolerably handsome Kubu girl who was carried off by a party
that discovered their huts. They have a language quite peculiar to
themselves, and they eat promiscuously whatever the woods afford, as
deer, elephant, rhinoceros, wild hog, snakes, or monkeys. The Gugu are
much scarcer than these, differing in little but the use of speech from
the Orang Utan of Borneo; their bodies being covered with long hair.
There have not been above two or three instances of their being met with
by the people of Labun (from whom my information is derived) and one of
these was entrapped many years ago in much the same manner as the
carpenter in Pilpay's Fables caught the monkey. He had children by a
Labun woman which also were more hairy than the common race; but the
third generation are not to be distinguished from others. The reader will
bestow what measure of faith he thinks due to this relation, the veracity
of which I do not pretend to vouch for. It has probably some foundation
in truth but is exaggerated in the circumstances.)
Menangkabau being the principal sovereignty of the island, which formerly
comprehended the whole, and still receives a shadow of homage from the
most powerful of the other kingdoms which have sprung up from its ruins,
would seem to claim a right to precedence in description, but I have a
sufficient reason for deferring it to a subsequent part of the work;
which is that the people of this empire, by their conversion to
Mahometanism and consequent change of manners, have lost in a greater
degree than some neighbouring tribes the genuine Sumatran character,
which is the immediate object of my investigation.
MALAYS.
They are distinguished from the other inhabitants of this island by the
appellation of Orang Malayo, or Malays, which however they have in common
with those of the coast of the Peninsula and of many other islands; and
the name is applied to every Mussulman speaking the Malayan as his proper
language, and either belonging to, or claiming descent from, the ancient
kingdom of Menangkabau; wherever the place of his residence may be.
Beyond Bencoolen to the southward there are none to be met with excepting
such as have been drawn thither by, and are in the pay of, Europeans. On
the eastern side of the island they are settled at the entrance of almost
all the navigable rivers, where they more conveniently indulge their
habitual bent for trade and piracy. It must be observed indeed that in
common speech the term Malay, like that of Moor in the continent of
India, is almost synonymous with Mahometan; and when the natives of other
parts learn to read the Arabic character, submit to circumcision, and
practise the ceremonies of religion, they are often said men-jadi Malayo,
to become Malays, instead of the more correct expression sudah masuk
Islam, have embraced the faith. The distinction will appear more strongly
from this circumstance, that whilst the sultan of Anak Sungei
(Moco-moco), ambitious of imitating the sultan of Menangkabau, styles
himself and his immediate subjects Malays, his neighbour, the Pangeran of
Sungei Lamo, chief of the Rejangs, a very civilised Mahometan, and whose
ancestors for some generations were of the same faith, seemed offended,
in a conversation I had with him, at my supposing him (as he is usually
considered) a Malay, and replied with some emotion, "Malayo tidah, sir;
orang ulu betul sayo." "No Malay sir; I am a genuine, aboriginal
countryman." The two languages he wrote and talked (I know not if he be
still living) with equal facility; but the Rejang he esteemed his mother
tongue.
Attempts to ascertain from what quarter Sumatra was peopled must rest
upon mere conjecture. The adjacent peninsula (called by Europeans or
other foreigners the Malayan Peninsula) presents the most obvious source
of population; and it has accordingly been presumed that emigrants from
thence supplied it and the other islands of the eastern Archipelago with
inhabitants. By this opinion, adopted without examination, I was likewise
misled and, on a former occasion, spoke of the probability of a colony
from the peninsula having settled upon the western coast of the island;
but I have since learned from the histories and traditions of the natives
of both countries that the reverse is the fact, and that the founders of
the celebrated kingdoms of Johor, Singapura, and Malacca were adventurers
from Sumatra. Even at this day the inhabitants of the interior parts of
the peninsula are a race entirely distinct from those of the two coasts.
Thus much it was necessary, in order to avoid ambiguity, to say in the
first instance concerning the Malays, of whom a more particular account
will be given in a subsequent part of the work.
As the most dissimilar among the other classes into which I have divided
the inhabitants must of course have very many points of mutual
resemblance, and many of their habits, customs, and ceremonies, in
common, it becomes expedient, in order to avoid a troublesome and useless
repetition, to single out one class from among them whose manners shall
undergo a particular and full investigation, and serve as a standard for
the whole; the deviation from which, in other classes, shall afterwards
be pointed out, and the most singular and striking usages peculiar to
each superadded.
NATION OF THE REJANGS ADOPTED AS A STANDARD OF DESCRIPTION.
Various circumstances induce me on this occasion to give the preference
to the Rejangs, though a nation of but small account in the political
scale of the island. They are placed in what may be esteemed a central
situation, not geographically, but with respect to the encroachments of
foreign manners and opinions introduced by the Malays from the north, and
Javans from the south; which gives them a claim to originality superior
to that of most others. They are a people whose form of government and
whose laws extend with very little variation over a considerable part of
the island, and principally that portion where the connexions of the
English lie. There are traditions of their having formerly sent forth
colonies to the southward; and in the country of Passummah the site of
their villages is still pointed out; which would prove that they have
formerly been of more consideration than they can boast at present. They
have a proper language and a perfect written character. These advantages
point out the Rejang people as an eligible standard of description; and a
motive equally strong that induces me to adopt them as such is that my
situation and connexions in the island led me to a more intimate and
minute acquaintance with their laws and manners than with those of any
other class. I must premise however that the Malay customs having made
their way in a greater or less degree to every part of Sumatra, it will
be totally impossible to discriminate with entire accuracy those which
are original from those which are borrowed; and of course what I shall
say of the Rejangs will apply for the most part not only to the Sumatrans
in general but may sometimes be in strictness proper to the Malays alone,
and by them taught to the higher rank of country people.
SITUATION OF THE REJANG COUNTRY.
The country of the Rejangs is divided to the north-west from the kingdom
of Anak Sungei (of which Moco-moco is the capital) by the small river of
Uri, near that of Kattaun; which last, with the district of Labun on its
banks, bounds it on the north or inland side. The country of Musi, where
Palembang River takes its rise, forms its limit to the eastward.
Bencoolen River, precisely speaking, confines it on the south-east;
though the inhabitants of the district called Lemba, extending from
thence to Silebar, are entirely the same people in manners and language.
The principal rivers besides those already mentioned are Laye, Pally, and
Sungeilamo; on all of which the English have factories, the resident or
chief being stationed at Laye.
PERSONS OF THE INHABITANTS.
The persons of the inhabitants of the island, though differing
considerably in districts remote from each other, may in general be
comprehended in the following description; excepting the Achinese, whose
commixture with the Moors of the west of India has distinguished them
from the other Sumatrans.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION.
They are rather below the middle stature; their bulk is in proportion;
their limbs are for the most part slight, but well shaped, and
particularly small at the wrists and ankles. Upon the whole they are
gracefully formed, and I scarcely recollect to have ever seen one
deformed person among the natives.*
(*Footnote. Ghirardini, an Italian painter, who touched at Sumatra on his
way to China in 1698 observes of the Malays:
Son di persona ben formata
Quanto mai finger san pittori industri.
He speaks in high terms of the country as being beautifully picturesque.)
The women however have the preposterous custom of flattening the noses,
and compressing the heads of children newly born, whilst the skull is yet
cartilaginous, which increases their natural tendency to that shape. I
could never trace the origin of the practice, or learn any other reason
for moulding the features to this uncouth appearance, but that it was an
improvement of beauty in their estimation. Captain Cook takes notice of a
similar operation at the island of Ulietea. They likewise pull out the
ears of infants to make them stand at an angle from the head. Their eyes
are uniformly dark and clear, and among some, especially the southern
women, bear a strong resemblance to those of the Chinese, in the
peculiarity of formation so generally observed of that people. Their hair
is strong and of a shining black; the improvement of both which qualities
it probably owes in great measure to the early and constant use of
coconut oil, with which they keep it moist. The men frequently cut their
hair short, not appearing to take any pride in it; the women encourage
theirs to a considerable length, and I have known many instances of its
reaching the ground. The men are beardless and have chins so remarkably
smooth that, were it not for the priests displaying a little tuft, we
should be apt to conclude that nature had refused them this token of
manhood. It is the same in respect to other parts of the body with both
sexes; and this particular attention to their persons they esteem a point
of delicacy, and the contrary an unpardonable neglect. The boys as they
approach to the age of puberty rub their chins, upper lips, and those
parts of the body that are subject to superfluous hair with chunam
(quicklime) especially of shells, which destroys the roots of the
incipient beard. The few pilae that afterwards appear are plucked out
from time to time with tweezers, which they always carry about them for
that purpose. Were it not for the numerous and very respectable
authorities from which we are assured that the natives of America are
naturally beardless, I should think that the common opinion on that
subject had been rashly adopted, and that their appearing thus at a
mature age was only the consequence of an early practice, similar to that
observed among the Sumatrans. Even now I must confess that it would
remove some small degree of doubt from my mind could it be ascertained
that no such custom prevails.*
(*Footnote. It is allowed by travellers that the Patagonians have tufts
of hair on the upper lip and chin. Captain Carver says that among the
tribes he visited the people made a regular practice of eradicating their
beards with pincers. At Brussels is preserved, along with a variety of
ancient and curious suits of armour, that of Montezuma, king of Mexico,
of which the visor, or mask for the face, has remarkably large whiskers;
an ornament which those Americans could not have imitated unless nature
had presented them with the model. See a paper in the Philosophical
Transactions for 1786, which puts this matter beyond a doubt. In a French
dictionary of the Huron language, published in 1632, I observe a term
corresponding to "arracher la barbe.")
Their complexion is properly yellow, wanting the red tinge that
constitutes a tawny or copper colour. They are in general lighter than
the Mestees, or halfbreed, of the rest of India; those of the superior
class who are not exposed to the rays of the sun, and particularly their
women of rank, approaching to a great degree of fairness. Did beauty
consist in this one quality some of them would surpass our brunettes in
Europe. The major part of the females are ugly, and many of them even to
disgust, yet there are those among them whose appearance is strikingly
beautiful; whatever composition of person, features, and complexion that
sentiment may be the result of.
COLOUR NOT ASCRIBABLE TO CLIMATE.
The fairness of the Sumatrans comparatively with other Indians, situated
as they are under a perpendicular sun where no season of the year affords
an alternative of cold, is I think an irrefragable proof that the
difference of colour in the various inhabitants of the earth is not the
immediate effect of climate. The children of Europeans born in this
island are as fair as those born in the country of their parents. I have
observed the same of the second generation, where a mixture with the
people of the country has been avoided. On the other hand the offspring
and all the descendants of the Guinea and other African slaves imported
there continue in the last instance as perfectly black as in the original
stock. I do not mean to enter into the merits of the question which
naturally connects with these observations; but shall only remark that
the sallow and adust countenances so commonly acquired by Europeans who
have long resided in hot climates are more ascribable to the effect of
bilious distempers, which almost all are subject to in a greater or less
degree, than of their exposure to the influence of the weather, which few
but seafaring people are liable to, and of which the impression is seldom
permanent. From this circumstance I have been led to conjecture that the
general disparity of complexions in different nations might POSSIBLY be
owing to the more or less copious secretion or redundance of that juice,
rendering the skin more or less dark according to the qualities of the
bile prevailing in the constitutions of each. But I fear such a
hypothesis would not stand the test of experiment, as it might be
expected to follow that, upon dissection, the contents of a negro's
gall-bladder, or at least the extravasated bile, should uniformly be
found black. Persons skilled in anatomy will determine whether it is
possible that the qualities of any animal secretion can so far affect the
frame as to render their consequences liable to be transmitted to
posterity in their full force.*
(*Footnote. In an Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and
Figure in the Human Species published at Philadelphia in 1787 the
permanent effect of the bilious secretion in determining the colour is
strongly insisted upon.)
The small size of the inhabitants, and especially of the women, may be in
some measure owing to the early communication between the sexes; though,
as the inclinations which lead to this intercourse are prompted here by
nature sooner than in cold climates, it is not unfair to suppose that,
being proportioned to the period of maturity, this is also sooner
attained, and consequently that the earlier cessation of growth of these
people is agreeable to the laws of their constitution, and not occasioned
by a premature and irregular appetite.
Persons of superior rank encourage the growth of their hand-nails,
particularly those of the fore and little fingers, to an extraordinary
length; frequently tingeing them red with the expressed juice of a shrub
which they call inei, the henna of the Arabians; as they do the nails of
their feet also, to which, being always uncovered, they pay as much
attention as to their hands. The hands of the natives, and even of the
halfbreed, are always cold to the touch; which I cannot account for
otherwise than by a supposition that, from the less degree of elasticity
in the solids occasioned by the heat of the climate, the internal action
of the body by which the fluids are put in motion is less vigorous, the
circulation is proportionably languid, and of course the diminished
effect is most perceptible in the extremities, and a coldness there is
the natural consequence.
HILL PEOPLE SUBJECT TO WENS.
The natives of the hills through the whole extent of the island are
subject to those monstrous wens from the throat which have been observed
of the Vallaisans and the inhabitants of other mountainous districts in
Europe. It has been usual to attribute this affection to the badness,
thawed state, mineral quality, or other peculiarity of the waters; many
skilful men having applied themselves to the investigation of the
subject. My experience enables me to pronounce without hesitation that
the disorder, for such it is though it appears here to mark a distinct
race of people (orang-gunong), is immediately connected with the
hilliness of the country, and of course, if the circumstances of the
water they use contribute thereto, it must be only so far as the nature
of the water is affected by the inequality or height of the land. But in
Sumatra neither snow nor other congelation is ever produced, which
militates against the most plausible conjecture that has been adopted
concerning the Alpine goitres. From every research that I have been
enabled to make I think I have reason to conclude that the complaint is
owing, among the Sumatrans, to the fogginess of the air in the valleys
between the high mountains, where, and not on the summits, the natives of
these parts reside. I before remarked that, between the ranges of hills,
the kabut or dense mist was visible for several hours every morning;
rising in a thick, opaque, and well-defined body with the sun, and seldom
quite dispersed till afternoon. This phenomenon, as well as that of the
wens, being peculiar to the regions of the hills, affords a presumption
that they may be connected; exclusive of the natural probability that a
cold vapour, gross to a uncommon degree, and continually enveloping the
habitations, should affect with tumors the throats of the inhabitants. I
cannot pretend to say how far this solution may apply to the case of the
goitres, but I recollect it to have been mentioned that the only method
of curing the people is by removing them from the valleys to the clear
and pure air on the tops of the hills; which seems to indicate a similar
source of the distemper to what I have pointed out. The Sumatrans do not
appear to attempt any remedy for it, the wens being consistent with the
highest health in other respects.
DIFFERENCE IN PERSON BETWEEN MALAYS AND OTHER SUMATRANS.
The personal difference between the Malays of the coast and the country
inhabitants is not so strongly marked but that it requires some
experience to distinguish them. The latter however possess an evident
superiority in point of size and strength, and are fairer complexioned,
which they probably owe to their situation, where the atmosphere is
colder; and it is generally observed that people living near the
seashore, and especially when accustomed to navigation, are darker than
their inland neighbours. Some attribute the disparity in constitutional
vigour to the more frequent use of opium among the Malays, which is
supposed to debilitate the frame; but I have noted that the Limun and
Batang Asei gold traders, who are a colony of that race settled in the
heart of the island, and who cannot exist a day without opium, are
remarkably hale and stout; which I have known to be observed with a
degree of envy by the opium-smokers of our settlements. The inhabitants
of Passummah also are described as being more robust in their persons
than the planters of the low country.
CLOTHING.
The original clothing of the Sumatrans is the same with that found by
navigators among the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands, and now
generally called by the name of Otaheitean cloth. It is still used among
the Rejangs for their working dress, and I have one in my possession
procured from these people consisting of a jacket, short drawers, and a
cap for the head. This is the inner bark of a certain species of tree,
beaten out to the degree of fineness required, approaching the more to
perfection as it resembles the softer kind of leather, some being nearly
equal to the most delicate kid-skin; in which character it somewhat
differs from the South Sea cloth, as that bears a resemblance rather to
paper, or to the manufacture of the loom. The country people now conform
in a great measure to the dress of the Malays, which I shall therefore
describe in this place, observing that much more simplicity still
prevails among the former, who look upon the others as coxcombs who lay
out all their substance on their backs, whilst in their turns they are
regarded by the Malays with contempt as unpolished rustics.
MAN'S DRESS.
A man's dress consists of the following parts. A close waistcoat, without
sleeves, but having a neck like a shirt, buttoned close up to the top,
with buttons, often of gold filigree. This is peculiar to the Malays.
Over this they wear the baju, which resembles a morning gown, open at the
neck, but generally fastened close at the wrists and halfway up the arm,
with nine buttons to each sleeve. The sleeves, however, are often wide
and loose, and others again, though nearly tight, reach not far beyond
the elbow, especially of those worn by the younger females, which, as
well as those of the young men, are open in front no farther down than
the bosom, and reach no lower than the waist, whereas the others hang
loose to the knees, and sometimes to the ankles. They are made usually of
blue or white cotton cloth; for the better sort, of chintz; and for great
men, of flowered silks. The kain-sarong is not unlike a Scots
highlander's plaid in appearance, being a piece of party-coloured cloth
about six or eight feet long and three or four wide, sewed together at
the ends; forming, as some writers have described it, a wide sack without
a bottom. This is sometimes gathered up and slung over the shoulder like
a sash, or else folded and tucked about the waist and hips; and in full
dress it is bound on by the belt of the kris (dagger), which is of
crimson silk and wraps several times round the body, with a loop at the
end in which the sheath of the kris hangs. They wear short drawers
reaching halfway down the thigh, generally of red or yellow taffeta.
There is no covering to their legs or feet. Round their heads they
fasten, in a particular manner, a fine, coloured handkerchief, so as to
resemble a small turban; the country people usually twisting a piece of
white or blue cloth for this purpose. The crown of their head remains
uncovered except on journeys, when they wear a tudong or umbrella-hat,
which completely screens them from the weather.
WOMAN'S DRESS.
The women have a kind of bodice, or short waistcoat rather, that defends
the breasts and reaches to the hips. The kain-sarong, before described,
comes up as high as the armpits, and extends to the feet, being kept on
simply by folding and tucking it over at the breast, except when the
tali-pending, or zone, is worn about the waist, which forms an additional
and necessary security. This is usually of embroidered cloth, and
sometimes a plate of gold or silver, about two inches broad, fastening in
the front with a large clasp of filigree or chased work, with some kind
of precious stone, or imitation of such, in the centre. The baju, or
upper gown, differs little from that of the men, buttoning in the same
manner at the wrists. A piece of fine, thin, cotton cloth, or slight
silk, about five feet long, and worked or fringed at each end, called a
salendang, is thrown across the back of the neck, and hangs down before;
serving also the purpose of a veil to the women of rank when they walk
abroad. The handkerchief is carried either folded small in the hand, or
in a long fold over the shoulder. There are two modes of dressing the
hair, one termed kundei and the other sanggol. The first resembles much
the fashion in which we see the Chinese women represented in paintings,
and which I conclude they borrowed from thence, where the hair is wound
circularly over the centre of the head, and fastened with a silver bodkin
or pin. In the other mode, which is more general, they give the hair a
single twist as it hangs behind, and then doubling it up they pass it
crosswise under a few hairs separated from the rest on the back of the
head for that purpose. A comb, often of tortoise-shell and sometimes
filigreed, helps to prevent it from falling down. The hair of the front
and of all parts of the head is of the same length, and when loose hangs
together behind, with most of the women, in very great quantity. It is
kept moist with oil newly expressed from the coconut; but those persons
who can afford it make use also of an empyreumatic oil extracted from gum
benzoin, as a grateful perfume. They wear no covering except ornaments of
flowers, which on particular occasions are the work of much labour and
ingenuity. The head-dresses of the dancing girls by profession, who are
usually Javans, are very artificially wrought, and as high as any modern
English lady's cap, yielding only to the feathered plumes of the year
1777. It is impossible to describe in words these intricate and fanciful
matters so as to convey a just idea of them. The flowers worn in undress
are for the most part strung in wreaths, and have a very neat and pretty
effect, without any degree of gaudiness, being usually white or pale
yellow, small, and frequently only half-blown. Those generally chosen for
these occasions are the bunga-tanjong and bunga-mellur: the
bunga-chumpaka is used to give the hair a fragrance, but is concealed
from the sight. They sometimes combine a variety of flowers in such a
manner as to appear like one, and fix them on a single stalk; but these,
being more formal, are less elegant than the wreaths.
DISTINGUISHING ORNAMENTS OF VIRGINS.
Among the country people, particularly in the southern countries, the
virgins (anak gaddis, or goddesses, as it is usually pronounced) are
distinguished by a fillet which goes across the front of the hair and
fastens behind. This is commonly a thin plate of silver, about half an
inch broad: those of the first rank have it of gold, and those of the
lowest class have their fillet of the leaf of the nipah tree. Beside this
peculiar ornament their state is denoted by their having rings or
bracelets of silver or gold on their wrists. Strings of coins round the
neck are universally worn by children, and the females, before they are
of an age to be clothed, have what may not be inaptly termed a
modesty-piece, being a plate of silver in the shape of a heart (called
chaping) hung before, by a chain of the same metal, passing round the
waist. The young women in the country villages manufacture themselves the
cloth that forms the body-dress, or kain-sarong, which for common
occasions is their only covering, and reaches from the breast no lower
than the knees. The dresses of the women of the Malay bazaars on the
contrary extend as low as the feet; but here, as in other instances, the
more scrupulous attention to appearances does not accompany the superior
degree of real modesty. This cloth, for the wear both of men and women,
is imported from the island of Celebes, or, as it is here termed, the
Bugis country.
MODE OF FILING TEETH.
Both sexes have the extraordinary custom of filing and otherwise
disfiguring their teeth, which are naturally very white and beautiful
from the simplicity of their food. For files they make use of small
whetstones of different degrees of fineness, and the patients lie on
their back during the operation. Many, particularly the women of the
Lampong country, have their teeth rubbed down quite even with the gums;
others have them formed in points; and some file off no more than the
outer coat and extremities, in order that they may the better receive and
retain the jetty blackness with which they almost universally adorn them.
The black used on these occasions is the empyreumatic oil of the
coconut-shell. When this is not applied the filing does not, by
destroying what we term the enamel, diminish the whiteness of the teeth;
but the use of betel renders them black if pains be not taken to prevent
it. The great men sometimes set theirs in gold, by casing, with a plate
of that metal, the under row; and this ornament, contrasted with the
black dye, has by lamp or candlelight a very splendid effect. It is
sometimes indented to the shape of the teeth, but more usually quite
plain. They do not remove it either to eat or sleep.
At the age of about eight or nine they bore the ears and file the teeth
of the female children; which are ceremonies that must necessarily
precede their marriage. The former they call betende, and the latter
bedabong; and these operations are regarded in the family as the occasion
of a festival. They do not here, as in some of the adjacent islands (of
Nias in particular), increase the aperture of the ear to a monstrous
size, so as in many instances to be large enough to admit the hand, the
lower parts being stretched till they touch the shoulders. Their earrings
are mostly of gold filigree, and fastened not with a clasp, but in the
manner of a rivet or nut screwed to the inner part.