ical and religious, acquired by its immediate neighbours, the Batta
tongue appears to have experienced less change than any other. For a
specimen of its words, its alphabet, and the rules by which the sound of
its letters is modified and governed, the reader is referred to the Table
and Plate above. It is remarkable that the proportion of the people who
are able to read and write is much greater than of those who do not; a
qualification seldom observed in such uncivilized parts of the world, and
not always found in the more polished.

WRITING.

Their writing for common purposes is, like that already described in
speaking of the Rejangs, upon pieces of bamboo.

BOOKS.

Their books (and such they may with propriety be termed) are composed of
the inner bark of a certain tree cut into long slips and folded in
squares, leaving part of the wood at each extremity to serve for the
outer covering. The bark for this purpose is shaved smooth and thin, and
afterwards rubbed over with rice-water. The pen they use is a twig or the
fibre of a leaf, and their ink is made of the soot of dammar mixed with
the juice of the sugar-cane. The contents of their books are little known
to us. The writing of most of those in my possession is mixed with
uncouth representations of scolopendra and other noxious animals, and
frequent diagrams, which imply their being works of astrology and
divination. These they are known to consult in all the transactions of
life, and the event is predicted by the application of certain characters
marked on a slip of bamboo, to the lines of the sacred book, with which a
comparison is made. But this is not their only mode of divining. Before
going to war they kill a buffalo or a fowl that is perfectly white, and
by observing the motion of the intestines judge of the good or ill
fortune likely to attend them; and the priest who performs this ceremony
had need to be infallible, for if he predicts contrary to the event it is
said that he is sometimes punished with death for his want of skill.
Exclusively however of these books of necromancy there are others
containing legendary and mythological tales, of which latter a sample
will be given under the article of religion.

REMARK BY DR. LEYDEN.

Dr. Leyden, in his Dissertation on the Languages and Literature of the
Indo-Chinese nations, says that the Batta character is written neither
from right to left, nor from left to right, nor from top to bottom, but
in a mann