The inhabitants of Sumatra have made but little progress in the useful arts. Fire arms, nails, adzes, axes, hoes are made in different parts. They are good carvers in %%ood and ivory; they make good cane and basket work. Silk and cotton cloths, gold and silver embroidery, earthenware, gunpowder, salt, gold and silver filagree work, are the chief objects of their industry.
The doosoons, or villages, are generally situated upon an eminence, on the banks of a river or a lake. The houses form a quadrangle, with lanes between. The balii or town-hall stands in the centre of' the square. It is a room from ninety to a hundred feet long, and from twenty to thirty feet wide, and open at the sides, unless when it is hung with mats or chintz. The houses consist of a wooden frame. lashed with split bamboos, and generally roofed with the leaf of the Neepal's palm. To secure themselves from wild beasts, the inhabitants raise their houses to different elevations, and they ascend to them by a piece of timber or stout bamboo cut in notches. The better class of houses are orna mented externally with uncouth carved ornaments; they have neither tables nor chairs, nor knives or forks. In cooking they employ an iron vessel.
Sumatra is chiefly occupied by the empire of Menancabow, and the Malays; by that of the Acheenese; the Battas, the Rejangs, and that of Lampong. The Malay language is universally
spoken along the coast. It prevails also in the in land territory of Menancabow, and is understood almost throughout the island. Their written cha racter is the Arabic. Many other languages pre vail in the island, but of these the Rejang and the Batta are the chief.
Sumatra abounds with wild animals, the tiger, the elephant, the hippopotamus, the rhinoceros, the bear, deer of various kinds, sloths, squirrels, mon keys, the gigantic orang-outang,* civet-cats, tiger cats, porcupines, hedgehogs, alligators, boa-con strictors, guavas, chameleons, flying lizards, tor toises, and turtle. • Among the domestic animals are the buffalo, which affords milk, beef and broth, the cow, the horse, the sheep, the goat, the hog, the otter, the cat, the dog and the rat. Among the birds are the beautiful Sumatra pheasant, eagles, vultures, peacocks, kites, crows, &c. The island swarms with insects.
For farther information respecting this island, see Beschreibung der inset Sumatra, hesonders in finsehung del MendeIs, ,Ve. von Adolph. Eschelskron, Hamb. 1781. Marsden's History of Sumatra, Lond. 1783. Shelbeare's History of Sumatra, Lond. 1787. Van Schirak's Deseription of the Com merce of Sumatra, in Dutch, Harlen, 1789: and the Asiatic Researches, vol. x. See also our article AeREEN.