Throughout the island the houses are much like those of Malay peoples elsewhere, with timber frames and thatched roofs. As in the other islands, they are set on posts wherever floods are likely to occur. The larger timbers of many houses are beautifully carved, although many of the designs are grotesque and even hideous. All the houses are clustered in villages. This is done partly for protection against man-eating tigers, and partly because the people are inclined to social life. The club-house is usually to be found in the villages. It is the town hall, bazaar, market, lounging place, and social club combined. Perhaps a wedding and a funeral may be going on there at the same time. Men gamble, and women gossip and chew betel-nut; the peddler likewise shows his bargain-counter wares at the club-house.

The great plantations of sugar, coffee, and tobacco are managed much the same as in Java. The rice-fields are cultivated usually by the Chinese, and they have much of the trade in the rice. Sumatra is famous for its tobacco. The plants grow larger and higher than those cultivated in the United States. The leaves are large and the best of them are used as "wrappers," or outer coverings for fine cigars. Sumatra leaf commands a high price, and a considerable amount of the best tobacco is shipped to Cuba and the United States.

The coffee crop is also of excellent quality. Some of it reaches the market as "Java" coffee; and, indeed, it is equal to the best coffee grown in Java. The beans are large, light in color, and of fine flavor. Carefully sorted Palembang coffee commands a high price.

Sumatra is famous for its pepper, and not far from one-half the world's product of pepper comes from this island. The plant producing pepper is not the pepper-tree so commonly grown for its beautiful foliage and bright red berries in California and Mexico; it is a vine or climbing bush. It is commonly planted near to a sapling, around which it twines; but in many plantations the plants are pruned and trimmed so that they grow unsupported. The pepper of commerce consists of the dried berries or fruit of the vine. It is the custom to pick the berries as they turn red. The berries shrivel and turn black as they dry. These, when ground, are the black pepper of commerce. When fully ripe the color of the berry turns to a pale yellow and the outer skin is easily removed. The "husked" berries are used for making the white pepper of commerce.

Sago is also an important product of Sumatra. It is the starchy pith of a kind of palm-tree—the sago-palm. The pith is dried, ground to a powder and washed in order to remove the stringy fibre. In the process of washing, the starchy granules sink to the bottom, while the woody fibre floats off.

A jungle, scene in Sumatra
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There are several large towns in Sumatra—Siboga, Padang, Benkulen, Telok Belong, and Palembang—but their names are rarely seen in print or spoken. The reason is not hard to find; Singapore, just across the Strait of Malacca, is a free port, with a fine harbor. Vessels from every part of the world call at Singapore, and it is much more convenient to have the Sumatra products marketed there than to send them from Sumatra ports.

A few miles to the east of Sumatra are the islands of Banka and Billiton, famous for their tin mines. These mines produce about two-thirds the world's supply of tin. It is interesting to know that the silver-white metal, with which so many of our kitchen utensils are coated, has travelled more than half-way around the world to be used, but this is probably the case.