The southern extremity of the mountain belt is inhabited by the Orang Abung, long a head-hunt ina race. These are the mountain pomades ; but there are also half-wild people, some living in boats in the salt-water creeks, and others in the sago forests and low jungles of the east coast. In this lowest class of Sumatran tribes should be included those inhabiting some of the western islands, such as the Enganoans. Their physical resemblance to the Malays is everywhere remarked, and (Journ. Ind. Arch. ii. pp. 332, 517) there seems no room to doubt that they are the aborigines of the Malayan region of Sumatra, and the rem nants of the stock from which the present Malays have descended. Their numbers may be pro visionally assumed at 6000. The Abung and Kubu in the south appear to be about 2000.
Orang Malaya. — The Malay races are the principal inhabitants of the island. .They entirely occupy the wildest and middle region of Sumatra, extending from the Rakan nearly to the Palem bang on the east coast, and from Ayer Bangis to Kataun on the west coast, a length of about 275 miles, with an average breadth of about 190 miles, and a superficies of 52,250 square miles, or little short of one-half of Sumatra.
The Malay population is distributed as follows : 1. Malays of the mountain region.
a. Menangkabau.
b. Malays of the region of Sapulo Burt Bandar and Gunong Sungei Pagu.
c. The Korinchi.
d. The Rawa.
2. Malays of the hilly territories to the west of the mountain region.
a. The seaboard of Menangkabau (1700 square miles).
b. The seaboard of Sapulo Bua Bandar, having a surface of 1300 square miles.
3. The Malays of the low lands or eastern countries.
4. The Malays of the east coast of the northern region.
The Battu of Sumatra are not unlike the Malay and Binua of the Malay Peninsula in feature, but are a finer race of men. The Batta occupy wholly the valley of Mandeling, and have an alphabet and language of their own. The women wear the sarong only, from the waist to tl3e knee.
The Batta language is alphabetic, and invented by themselves. It has several dialects. They believe in evil spirits and omens. They are an inland people, the Malays from Menangkabau havina. spread and occupied all the coasts. All the lratta beyond the territories of the Dutch are from time iinmemorial cannibals. On the Dutch acquiring the plain of the Mandeling valley, the Batta dwelling there were compelled to abandon their cannibalism. The writings of Marco Polo show that, so early at least as 1290, they were addicted to this. The raja of Sipirok assured the Dutch Government at Pedang that he had eaten human flesh at least forty times, and that nothing he had ever eaten was equal to it. Professor Bikmore, travelling amongst them in 1865, confirms what Sir Stamford Raffles wrote in 1820, after visiting Tapanuli Bay, viz. that for a person convicted of adultery, midnight robbery, prisoners of war, intermarrying into another tribe, and for treacherously attacking a village, house, or person, the punishment is to be cut up and eaten.
The races blend with each other at their boundaries, many districts and villages in the northern region, for instance, being peopled by Malays and Battas, Malays and Achinese, or Achinese and Battas, and most of the settlements near the coast possess in addition a very mixed population of foreigners from the rest of the Archipelago, China, India, and Arabia, while Europeans are found in small nuinbers in the Netherlands possessions, chiefly at Palembang, Bankaulu, and Padang, little more than two millions for the entire population. Mr. Francis
estimated 4,500,000, but the following table exhibits ascertained results :— The inhabitants of Komring and of Komring Ulu have a peculiar language ; their writing, in letter and sound, agrees much with that of the Battas. The monarch (dancing) and berswara (singing) also differ in Kofnring from what they are in the other districts. The young girls dress better, are more pleasing in their movements, and their voice is more harmonious than that of women of the country usually is in singing. Girls are able, in free, agreeable, and melodious tones, to pour forth improvised couplets and verses in honour of persons and events. In former days the concubines of the sultan were chosen froin the women in Komring. The Sumatrans speak of tigers with a deg,ree of awe, and hesitate to call them by their common name (rimau or mull ing), terming them respectfully satwa (the wild animals), or even nenek (ancestors), as really believing them such, or by way of soothing and coaxing them.
In Sumatra and the groups of islands on its western coast, in addition to the Malay, there are at least nino other languages, five of which, the Ache or Admen on the north-western end of this island, the Batak or Bata, the Korinchi, east of the Battik, the Rajang or Rejang, and tho Lam pung, aro cultivated or written tongues. There are also several rude languages among the scat tered tribes on the mainland. The Batak or Batta nation lio to the east of tho Malays. The Lampung nation, which occupies that portion of the south - western side of Sumatra which lies opposite to Java, divided from it only by the Straits of Sunda, has its own peculiar alphabet, which consists of 19 substantive letters, with double or treble consonants, making them up to 44. It has a great deal of that angular, linear, and meagre form which characterizes the other Sumatran alphabets. The Lampung people occupy the eastern end of Java, on the Straits of Sunda, and fronting the western extremity of Java. In the groups of islands on the western coast of Sumatra are several unwritten tongues, amongst which niay be named that of the Pogy or Pagi Islands, the language of the Nias, and that of Maroa. In Sumatra, beginning from the west, the first evidence of a native written character is among tho Battik, and it is singular that a nation of cannibals should possess the knowledge of letters. There was assuredly nothing of tho kind in Europe or continental Asia until long after men bad ceased to eat each other. The form of the Batak letters is horizontal. The Bhima alpha bet formerly in nse amongst the Bhima *pie in the island of Sumbawa, east of Sumatra and Java, has now given way to the alphabets of the Celebes. The Acheen and Malay of Sumatra are written in the Arabic character. The Rejang, at Taba Pananjong in Sumatra, are a distinct race from the Malays of Menangkaban, though they belong to the Malay race. They have a language and alphabet of their own.