ants. I
cannot pretend to say how far this solution may apply to the case of the
goitres, but I recollect it to have been mentioned that the only method
of curing the people is by removing them from the valleys to the clear
and pure air on the tops of the hills; which seems to indicate a similar
source of the distemper to what I have pointed out. The Sumatrans do not
appear to attempt any remedy for it, the wens being consistent with the
highest health in other respects.

DIFFERENCE IN PERSON BETWEEN MALAYS AND OTHER SUMATRANS.

The personal difference between the Malays of the coast and the country
inhabitants is not so strongly marked but that it requires some
experience to distinguish them. The latter however possess an evident
superiority in point of size and strength, and are fairer complexioned,
which they probably owe to their situation, where the atmosphere is
colder; and it is generally observed that people living near the
seashore, and especially when accustomed to navigation, are darker than
their inland neighbours. Some attribute the disparity in constitutional
vigour to the more frequent use of opium among the Malays, which is
supposed to debilitate the frame; but I have noted that the Limun and
Batang Asei gold traders, who are a colony of that race settled in the
heart of the island, and who cannot exist a day without opium, are
remarkably hale and stout; which I have known to be observed with a
degree of envy by the opium-smokers of our settlements. The inhabitants
of Passummah also are described as being more robust in their persons
than the planters of the low country.

CLOTHING.

The original clothing of the Sumatrans is the same with that found by
navigators among the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands, and now
generally called by the name of Otaheitean cloth. It is still used among
the Rejangs for their working dress, and I have one in my possession
procured from these people consisting of a jacket, short drawers, and a
cap for the head. This is the inner bark of a certain species of tree,
beaten out to the degree of fineness required, approaching the more to
perfection as it resembles the softer kind of leather, some being nearly
equal to the most delicate kid-skin; in which character it somewhat
differs from the South Sea cloth, as that bears a resemblance rather to
paper, or to the manufacture of the loom. The country people now conform
in a great measure to the dress of the Malays, which I