till, as
no previous idea was conceived of this latent principle, and consequently
no search made, no endeavours exerted, to bring it to light, I see not
the impossibility a priori of its remaining almost as long concealed from
mankind as the properties of the loadstone or the qualities of
gunpowder.)

Water is conveyed from the spring in bamboos, which for this purpose are
cut, either to the length of five or six feet and carried over the
shoulder, or into a number of single joints that are put together in a
basket. It is drunk out of the fruit called labu here, resembling the
calabash of the West Indies, a hole being made in the side of the neck
and another at top for vent. In drinking they generally hold the vessel
at a distance above their mouths and catch the stream as it falls; the
liquid descending to the stomach without the action of swallowing.
Baskets (bronong, bakul) are a considerable part of the furniture of a
man's house, and the number of these seen hanging up are tokens of the
owner's substance; for in them his harvests of rice or pepper are
gathered and brought home; no carts being employed in the interior parts
of the island which I am now describing. They are made of slips of bamboo
connected by means of split rattans; and are carried chiefly by the
women, on the back, supported by a string or band across the forehead.

FOOD.

Although the Sumatrans live in a great measure upon vegetable food they
are not restrained by any superstitious opinion from other aliments, and
accordingly at their entertainments the flesh of the buffalo (karbau),
goat, and fowls, are served up. Their dishes are almost all prepared in
that mode of dressing to which we have given the name of curry (from a
Hindostanic word), and which is now universally known in Europe. It is
called in the Malay language gulei, and may be composed of any kind of
edible, but is generally of flesh or fowl, with a variety of pulse and
succulent herbage, stewed down with certain ingredients, by us termed,
when mixed and ground together, curry powder. These ingredients are,
among others, the cayenne or chili-pepper, turmeric, sarei or
lemon-grass, cardamums, garlick, and the pulp of the coconut bruised to a
milk resembling that of almonds, which is the only liquid made use of.
This differs from the curries of Madras and Bengal, which have greater
variety of spices, and want the coconut. It is not a little remarkable
that the common pepper, the chi