The history of Sumatra : $b Containing an account of the government, laws, customs and manners of the native inhabitantsMarsden, William
History
The history of Sumatra : $b Containing an account of the government, laws, customs and manners of the native inhabitants
Marsden, William
Natural history -- Indonesia -- Sumatra; Sumatra (Indonesia)
Some however I have met with who, in arithmetic, could multiply and
divide, by a single multiplier or divisor, several places of figures.
Tens of thousands (laksa) are the highest class of numbers the Malay
language has a name for. In counting over a quantity of small articles
each tenth, and afterwards each hundredth piece is put aside; which
method is consonant with the progress of scientific numeration, and
probably gave it origin. When they may have occasion to recollect at a
distance of time the tale of any commodities they are carrying to market,
or the like, the country people often assist their memory by tying knots
on a string, which is produced when they want to specify the number. The
Peruvian quipos were I suppose an improvement upon this simple invention.
MEASURES.
They estimate the quantity of most species of merchandise by what we call
dry measure, the use of weights, as applied to bulky articles, being
apparently introduced among them by foreigners; for the pikul and catti
are used only on the sea-coast and places which the Malays frequent. The
kulah or bamboo, containing very nearly a gallon, is the general standard
of measure among the Rejangs: of these eight hundred make a koyan: the
chupah is one quarter of a bamboo. By this measure almost all articles,
even elephants' teeth, are bought and sold; but by a bamboo of ivory they
mean so much as is equal in weight to a bamboo of rice. This still
includes the idea of weight, but is not attended with their principal
objection to that mode of ascertaining quantity which arises, as they
say, from the impossibility of judging by the eye of the justness of
artificial weights, owing to the various materials of which they may be
composed, and to which measurement is not liable. The measures of length
here, as perhaps originally among every people upon earth, are taken from
the dimensions of the human body. The deppa, or fathom, is the extent of
the arms from each extremity of the fingers: the etta, asta, or cubit, is
the forearm and hand; kaki is the foot; jungka is the span; and jarri,
which signifies a finger, is the inch. These are estimated from the
general proportions of middle-sized men, others making an allowance in
measuring, and not regulated by an exact standard.
GEOGRAPHY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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