This missionary tells me that he knew of a Batta
who had heen guilty of stealing an article of only
very little value according to their ideas of wealth,
yet he was seized, his arms extended at full length
and fastened to a hamhoo, a sharpened prop placed
under his chin, so that he could not move his head,
and in this condition he was hound fast to a tree.
The knife was then handed to the native who had
lost the article, and he was ordered to step forward
and cut out of the living man what piece he preferred.
This he did promptly; the rajah took the
second choice, and then the people finished the coldblooded
butchery, and thus their victim died. This
revolting feast, he assures me, took place but a short
distance from the village where he resides. How
any lady can think of going to live among such dangers
I cannot conceive; but Madame Pfeiffer, according
to her account, went considerably farther than
the place where these missionaries reside, and even
reached the northern end of the Silindong valley;
but I am assured here, and she states nearly the
same thing in her book, that the Battas only permitted
her to return because they regarded her as a
witch. Three years after she performed that journey,
three French priests were butchered and devoured,
before they had come near to the farthest
place she had reached alone. Ho Malay would have
ever escaped who had gone so far into their country.
The parts that are esteemed the greatest delicacies
are the palms of the hands, and, after them,
the eyes. As soon as a piece is cut out it is dipped,
still warm and steaming, in sambal, a common con