The Battas Now Bury Their Dead, After Keeping The Body A Considerable
Time.
But the people of Nias and the Batu Islands, whom Junghuhn considers
to be of common origin with the Battas, do not bury, but expose the bodies
in coffins upon rocks by the sea.
And the small and very peculiar people
of the Paggi Islands expose their dead on bamboo platforms in the forest.
It is quite probable that such customs existed in the north of Sumatra
also; indeed they may still exist, for the interior seems unknown. We do
hear of pagan hill-people inland from Pedir who make descents upon the
coast, (Junghuhn II. 140; Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal, etc. 2nd
year, No. 4; Nouv. Ann. des. V. XVIII.)
[1] Marsden, 1st ed. p. 291.
[2] Veth's Atchin, 1873, p. 37.
[3] It might be supposed that Varthema had stolen from Serano; but the
book of the former was published in 1510.
[4] Castanheda speaks of Pacem as the best port of the land: "standing on
the bank of a river on marshy ground about a league inland; and at
the mouth of the river there are some houses of timber where a customs
collector was stationed to exact duties at the anchorage from the
ships which touched there." (Bk. II. ch. iii.) This agrees with Ibn
Batuta's account of Sumatra, 4 miles from its port. [A village named
Samudra discovered in our days near Pasei is perhaps a remnant of the
kingdom of Samara.
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