ARMS.

In the country of Menangkabau they have from the earliest times
manufactured arms for their own use and to supply the northern
inhabitants of the island, who are the most warlike, and which trade they
continue to this day, smelting, forging, and preparing, by a process of
their own, the iron and steel for this purpose, although much is at the
same time purchased from Europeans.*

(*Footnote. The principal iron mines are at a place called Padang Luar,
where the ore is sold at the rate of half a fanam or forty-eighth part of
a dollar for a man's load, and carried to another place in the
Menangkabau country called Selimpuwong, where it is smelted and
manufactured.)

CANNON.

The use of cannon in this and other parts of India is mentioned by the
oldest Portuguese historians, and it must consequently have been known
there before the discovery of the passage by the Cape of Good Hope. Their
guns are those pieces called matchlocks, the improvement of springs and
flints not being yet adopted by them; the barrels are well tempered and
of the justest bore, as is evident from the excellence of their aim,
which they always take by lowering, instead of raising the muzzle of the
piece to the object. They are wrought by rolling a flatted bar of iron of
proportionate dimensions spirally round a circular rod, and beating it
till the parts of the former unite; which method seems preferable in
point of strength to that of folding and soldering the bar
longitudinally. The art of boring may well be supposed unknown to these
people. Firelocks are called by them snapang, from the Dutch name.
Gunpowder they make in great quantities, but either from the injudicious
proportion of the ingredients in the composition, or the imperfect
granulation, it is very defective in strength.

SIDE-ARMS.

The tombak, lambing, and kujur or kunjur are names for weapons of the
lance or spear kind; the pedang, rudus, pamandap, and kalewang are of the
sword kind, and slung at the side, the siwar is a small instrument of the
nature of a stiletto, chiefly used for assassination; and the kris is a
species of dagger of a particular construction, very generally worn,
being stuck in front through the folds of a belt that goes several times
round the body.

(PLATE 17. SUMATRAN WEAPONS.
A. A Malay Gadoobang.
B. A Batta Weapon.
C. A Malay Creese.
One-third of the size of the Originals.
W. Williams del. and sculpt.
Published by W. Marsden, 1810.)

(P