August Schreiber

“ It is hard work, yet the women are frequently accustomed to perform it with their babies strapped to their backs, where the infant is exposed to all the abrupt and awkward oscillations of the mother's head. The rice must be carefully cleaned after it is thrashed, for the lord of the house will not be trifled with, and, if he finds a husk in his breakfast, it may turn out a bad day for the woman. ”

“ At the same time a time-keeping convulsion, beginning in his fingers, extends from limb to limb, finally engaging the whole body, till at last the man dances in spasmodic leaps, which continue till he collapses in exhaustion. The music now ceases, and the time has come for the head of the family to question the begu which has taken possession of the medium, first asking its name. ”

“ At meals the whole family sit around the rice-pots. They formerly used leaves for plates, but they now generally have European plates. As a rule, they eat immediately from the hand, which is previously washed in a vessel of water kept ready for the purpose. The nice point in eating consists in not allowing the fingertips to touch the lips, but in letting the rice drop from the fingers into the hollow of the hand just before it is given to the mouth. ”

“ Accepting the theory of a comparatively modern origin of cannibalism, the question still remains, of the immediate occasion of its introduction. Aside from the tradition already mentioned, we can imagine but three grounds on which it could have been based. Human flesh may have been first eaten under stress of necessity, and found so palatable that the practice was continued; superstition may have suggested the idea that the eating of the flesh would secure the eater against the bad influence of the spirit of the eaten one ”

“ An expedient sometimes resorted to in desperate cases is to consult the begu itself for advice. For this purpose all the sick person's family connections living in the town, men, women, and children, assemble at the house. ”

“ The town is composed of a street about fifty feet wide, with a row of respectable-looking houses, all built on piles, on either side. We are, in fact, in a land of pile-houses, and nothing more than a glance around is needed to convince the visitor of the fallacy of the notion that all the pile-houses were built in lakes. ”

“ If the ceremonies are interrupted by the death of the patient during their performance, the music ceases and lamentations take its place; the company go away, leaving only the nearest relatives of the deceased at the house; a few shots are fired, either to drive away evil spirits, or to give notice of the death, and preparations are begun for the funeral. ”

“ The Battas attribute all serious sickness to the work of evil spirits, begu; and, as they know by experience that persons who go down from the highlands and remain for a considerable length of time on the coast or in the flat country are liable to be attacked by a virulent fever after their return, they have come to consider the begu of the sea, the begu laut, a particularly malignant and dangerous spirit. ”

“ On one side are the musicians, two, four, six, or eight young fellows, armed with drums of bamboo and deer-skin, and cymbals and gongs, bought from the Chinese, which are kept with the greatest care, in cases specially made for them, among the most precious heirlooms of the family. ”

“ The children of both sexes, after they have grown up, sleep outside of the house and not with their parents, the young men in the sopos, the girls in parties of several with some old widow; but the children, till they have households of their own, take their meals with their parents. ”

“ Strangers and guests coming to the town are received in them; the men sit in them mornings and evenings, chatting and smoking; justice is administered and public business transacted in them; they are occupied during the day by women weaving; and at night strangers, widowers, and unmarried young men sleep in them. ”

“ The dwelling houses proper consist of a tightly inclosed story, having a few small windows, and covered with an overhanging roof, the high gables of which permit the garret-space to be left open for the free circulation of the outer air. Another class of houses, which are evidently pavilions of luxury and indicate wealth, are built on larger posts than the others, and have no inclosure whatever. ”

“ If the final answer is that there is no hope for the sick man, he is left to his fate, which has most probably been made more certain by his having had to endure the prolonged torture of witnessing these ceremonies ”

“ The sugar-palm affords the common drink of the people, which they call tunak, and of which a single tree, if properly taken care of, will furnish a considerable daily supply for months at a time. Flavored and made stronger by the addition of bitter roots, it is greatly enjoyed by the many, though despised by a few, and may be indulged in to a considerable excess without making drunk. ”

“ The region within which cannibalism prevails has been considerably contracted within the last three years, in consequence of the extension of Dutch authority over Silindung and Toba; for man-eating is, of course, extinguished wherever Dutch influence prevails. The heathenism of the Battas is, moreover, fast declining before the persistent attacks of Christianity ”

“ The poles are not very large, but are made of wood selected for its lasting qualities, and often of heart-wood. They are planted in the ground in rows, and so connected by cross-bars that, shake as much as it may in time of storm or earthquake, the house will not fall down. ”

“ These places are arranged at a running stream or a canal made for the purpose, by fixing a water-pipe of bamboo in such a manner that a man standing or sitting under it can have the water run all over his body. Such baths are taken morning and evening. Separate pantjurs are provided for the women. It is one of the morning duties of the women and girls, even down to children of four and five years old, to bring drinking-water in the gargitis, a water-vessel made of a thick stalk of bamboo. The size and strength of growing girls are generally measured by the number of gargitis they can carry. ”

“ The number of families living in the house can generally be calculated from the number of fire-places to be seen., No division is made in the day-time between the parts of the house occupied by the different families, but a separation is made between the sleeping-places at night by hanging up mats. ”

“ It is dedicated to the particular object it is designed to serve, with a certain set of magic forms, and is laid in the road outside of the town, with the expectation that the wicked spirit will come out of the sick person and go into it. ”

“ The value of the animal is regulated by the length of his horns, and this is measured by comparison of the length of his owner's arm from the forefinger. If the horns are long enough to reach to the arm-pits on the other side, the animal corresponds with the Batta equivalent for "thorough-bred." ”