ld, or else purchase a matchlock gun and become soldiers of
fortune, hiring themselves to whoever will pay them, but always ready to
come forward in defence of their country and families. They are a thick
stout dark race of people, something resembling the Achinese; and in
general they are addicted to smoking opium. We had no opportunity of
seeing the Sungei-tenang women. The men are very fantastical in their
dress. Their bajus have the sleeves blue perhaps whilst the body is
white, with stripes of red or any other colour over the shoulders, and
their short breeches are generally one half blue and the other white,
just as fancy leads them. Others again are dressed entirely in blue
cotton cloth, the same as the inhabitants of the west coast. The bag
containing their sirih or betel hangs over the shoulder by a string, if
it may be so termed, of brass wire. Many of them have also twisted brass
wire round the waist, in which they stick their krises.

CHARMS.

They commonly carry charms about their persons to preserve them from
accidents; one of which was shown to us, printed (at Batavia or Samarang
in Java) in Dutch, Portuguese, and French. It purported that the writer
was acquainted with the occult sciences, and that whoever possessed one
of the papers impressed with his mark (which was the figure of a hand
with the thumb and fingers extended) was invulnerable and free from all
kinds of harm. It desired the people to be very cautious of taking any
such printed in London (where certainly none were ever printed), as the
English would endeavour to counterfeit them and to impose on the
purchasers,
being all cheats. (Whether we consider this as a political or a
mercantile speculation it is not a little extraordinary and ridiculous).
The houses here, as well as in the Serampei country, are all built on
posts of what they call paku gajah (elephant-fern, Chamaerops palma,
Lour.), a tree something resembling a fern, and when full-grown a
palm-tree. It is of a fibrous nature, black, and lasts for a great length
of time. Every dusun has a ballei or town hall, about a hundred and
twenty feet long and proportionably broad, the woodwork of which is
neatly carved. The dwelling-houses contain five, six, or seven families
each, and the country is populous. The inhabitants both of Sungei-tenang
and Serampei are Mahometans, and acknowledge themselves subjects of
Jambi. The former country, so well as we were able to ascertain, is
bounded on