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)
The country of the Rejangs is divided to the north-west from the kingdom
of Anak Sungei (of which Moco-moco is the capital) by the small river of
Uri, near that of Kattaun; which last, with the district of Labun on its
banks, bounds it on the north or inland side. The country of Musi, where
Palembang River takes its rise, forms its limit to the eastward.
Bencoolen River, precisely speaking, confines it on the south-east;
though the inhabitants of the district called Lemba, extending from
thence to Silebar, are entirely the same people in manners and language.
The principal rivers besides those already mentioned are Laye, Pally, and
Sungeilamo; on all of which the English have factories, the resident or
chief being stationed at Laye.
PERSONS OF THE INHABITANTS.
The persons of the inhabitants of the island, though differing
considerably in districts remote from each other, may in general be
comprehended in the following description; excepting the Achinese, whose
commixture with the Moors of the west of India has distinguished them
from the other Sumatrans.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION.
They are rather below the middle stature; their bulk is in proportion;
their limbs are for the most part slight, but well shaped, and
particularly small at the wrists and ankles. Upon the whole they are
gracefully formed, and I scarcely recollect to have ever seen one
deformed person among the natives.*
(*Footnote. Ghirardini, an Italian painter, who touched at Sumatra on his
way to China in 1698 observes of the Malays:
Son di persona ben formata
Quanto mai finger san pittori industri.
He speaks in high terms of the country as being beautifully picturesque.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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