The nut of the Areca catechu, is wrapped in the leaf of the piper betel, the first being astringent, the second pungent. The addition of lime completes the preparation. This stimulates the salivary glands, tinges the saliva red, and discolours the teeth.
Of the chief islands occupied by the Malay family, the first two under notice are
Sumatra—and
Java.—These being taken together, give us
GROUP III. ([p. 91].)
A. SUMATRANS. B. JAVANESE (OPIUM SMOKERS).
A. The populations of Sumatra exhibit different degrees of civilisation to an extent found in few areas of equal size: the difference in their religious creeds being proportionately broad. There are the extreme forms of rude paganism; there are traces of the Indian forms of religion; and there is Mahometanism. The least clothed of the figures before us is a Lubu, one of the wildest, rudest, and weakest of all the populations. The position of the Lubus in Sumatra is that of the Bushmen of South Africa, for they are a fragmentary population, driven into the more inaccessible districts by tribes stronger than themselves; without arts, and without settled habitations.
The next are Battas, whose civilisation is some degrees above that of the Lubus. A great part of their present area belonged to this last named population, who are, probably, Battas in the very lowest stage of development. These require further notice. They belong to the northern half of Sumatra, though without reaching the northern extremity of the island.
At the very northern end we have the kingdom of Atshin, Achin, or Acheen, where the religion is Mahometan, and where the alphabet is the Arabic; Atshin being the part of Sumatra where the influence of the Arabian trade, Arabian religion, and Arabian language, have been the greatest.
South of Atshin is the Batta country. Here there is only an imperfect Mahometanism, with no use of the Arabic alphabet, and but little tincture of Arab cultivation.
The rivers in the Batta country are inconsiderable, so are the forests; for the country is an elevated platform—dry, exposed, and parched. The luxuriant vegetation of so many regions in this part of the world, finds no place here; and instead of it, we have sand, hardened clay, bare rocks swept by strong currents of wind and exposed to an equatorial sun.