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)
March 1st. After completely destroying Koto Tuggoh we marched in a north
and afterwards an east direction, and arrived at Koto Bharu. The head
dupati requesting a parley, it was granted, and, on our promising not to
injure his village, he allowed us to take possession of it. We found in
the place a number of Batang Asei and other people, armed with muskets,
blunderbusses, and spears. At our desire, he sent off people to the other
Sungei-tenang villages to summon their chiefs to meet us if they chose to
show themselves friends, or otherwise we should proceed against them as
we had done against Koto Tuggoh.
PEACE CONCLUDED.
This dupati was a respectable-looking old man, and tears trickled down
his cheeks when matters were amicably settled between us: indeed for some
time he could hardly be convinced of it, and repeatedly asked, "Are we
friends?" 2nd. The chiefs met as desired, and after a short conversation
agreed to all that we proposed. Papers were thereupon drawn up and signed
and sworn to under the British colours. After this a shell was thrown
into the air at the request of the chiefs, who were desirous of
witnessing the sight.
MODE OF TAKING AN OATH.
Their method of swearing was as follows: The young shoots of the
anau-tree were made into a kind of rope, with the leaves hanging, and
this was attached to four stakes stuck in the ground, forming an area of
five or six feet square, within which a mat was spread, where those about
to take the oath seated themselves. A small branch of the prickly bamboo
was planted in the area also, and benzoin was kept burning during the
ceremony. The chiefs then laid their hands on the koran, held to them by
a priest, and one of them repeated to the rest the substance of the oath,
who, at the pauses he made, gave a nod of assent; after which they
severally said, "may the earth become barren, the air and water
poisonous, and may dreadful calamities fall on us and our posterity, if
we do not fulfil what we now agree to and promise."
ACCOUNT OF SUNGEI-TENANG COUNTRY.
We met here with little or no fruit excepting plantains and pineapples,
and these of an indifferent sort. The general produce of the country was
maize, padi, potatoes, sweet-potatoes, tobacco, and sugar-cane. The
principal part of their clothing was procured from the eastern side of
the island. They appear to have no regular season for sowing the grain,
and we saw plantations where in one part they had taken in the crop, in
another part it was nearly ripe, in a third not above five inches high,
and in a fourth they had but just prepared the ground for sowing. Upon
the whole, there appeared more cultivation than near the coast.
MANNERS OF PEOPLE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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