y of most species of merchandise by what we call
dry measure, the use of weights, as applied to bulky articles, being
apparently introduced among them by foreigners; for the pikul and catti
are used only on the sea-coast and places which the Malays frequent. The
kulah or bamboo, containing very nearly a gallon, is the general standard
of measure among the Rejangs: of these eight hundred make a koyan: the
chupah is one quarter of a bamboo. By this measure almost all articles,
even elephants' teeth, are bought and sold; but by a bamboo of ivory they
mean so much as is equal in weight to a bamboo of rice. This still
includes the idea of weight, but is not attended with their principal
objection to that mode of ascertaining quantity which arises, as they
say, from the impossibility of judging by the eye of the justness of
artificial weights, owing to the various materials of which they may be
composed, and to which measurement is not liable. The measures of length
here, as perhaps originally among every people upon earth, are taken from
the dimensions of the human body. The deppa, or fathom, is the extent of
the arms from each extremity of the fingers: the etta, asta, or cubit, is
the forearm and hand; kaki is the foot; jungka is the span; and jarri,
which signifies a finger, is the inch. These are estimated from the
general proportions of middle-sized men, others making an allowance in
measuring, and not regulated by an exact standard.

GEOGRAPHY.

The ideas of geography among such of them as do not frequent the sea are
perfectly confined, or rather they entertain none. Few of them know that
the country they inhabit is an island, or have any general name for it.
Habit renders them expert in travelling through the woods, where they
perform journeys of weeks and months without seeing a dwelling. In places
little frequented, where they have occasion to strike out new paths (for
roads there are none), they make marks on trees for the future guidance
of themselves and others. I have heard a man say, "I will attempt a
passage by such a route, for my father, when living, told me that he had
left his tokens there." They estimate the distance of places from each
other by the number of days, or the proportion of the day, taken up in
travelling it, and not by measurement of the space. Their journey, or
day's walk, may be computed at about twenty miles; but they can bear a
long continuance of fatigue.

ASTRONOMY.

The Malays as we