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Rh population, are rapidly absorbing them. Webster, in describing the Battaks, says: "The average stature of the men is about five feet four inches; of the women, four feet eight inches. In general build they are rather thickset, with broad shoulders and fairly muscular limbs. The color of the skin ranges from dark brown to a yellowish tint, the darkness apparently quite independent of climatic influences or distinction of race. The skull is rather oval than round. In marked contrast to the Malay type are the large, black, long-shaped eyes, beneath heavy black or



dark-brown eyebrows. The cheek bones are somewhat prominent, but less so than among the Malays."

Neuman, in 1886, reckoned the population of the entire river basin occupied by the Battaks at fifty thousand, and Van der Tunk has given us a very good account of their language, and of the Toba dialect in particular. Battak poetry has been treated by Mr. C. A. Ophnijen in a very entertaining volume, and in it he describes "a curious leaf language used by Battak lovers, in which the name of some leaf or plant is substituted for the word with which it has greatest phonetic similarity."

The Battaks have invented an alphabetic language of their own, and the various shaped letters are sometimes quite intricate and difficult to decipher. Often they write it on narrow strips of tender bamboo about half a foot long, using for the purpose the