Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/53

Rh light penalties, or a few years in jail, the Battaks cut up their perpetrators alive, and I dare say ate them afterward; indeed, cases are on record where a Battak has been convicted of adultery, and his discoverers, members of his own tribe, have cut him up alive and then feasted upon his remains. A missionary once told Prof. Bickmore that he knew of a Battak who "had been guilty of stealing an article of only very little value according to their ideas of wealth, yet he was seized, his arms extended at full length and fastened to a bamboo, a sharpened prop placed under his chin, so that he could not move his head, and in this condition he was bound fast to a tree. The knife was then handed to the native who had lost the article, and he was ordered to step forward and cut out of the living man what piece he preferred. This he did promptly; the rajah took the second choice, and then the people finished the cold-blooded butchery, and thus their victim died.

"The parts that are esteemed the greatest delicacies are the palms of the hands, and after them the eyes. As soon as a piece is cut out it is dipped, still warm and steaming, in sambal, a common condiment, composed of red or Chili peppers and a few grains of coarse salt, ground up between two flat stones. Formerly it appears to have been the custom to broil the human flesh, for Mr. Marsden states that in December, 1780, a native of Nias, who stabbed a Batta at Batang Taroh, the river I crossed on the suspension bridge, was seized at six one morning, and, without any judicial process, was tied to a stake, cut in pieces with the utmost eagerness while yet alive, and eaten upon the spot, partly broiled, but mostly raw."

Such are some of the characters and habits of the people shown in Figs. 5 and 6 accompanying the present article. It will be seen that the members composing the group shown in Fig. 5 are but scantily clad, and they are each and all almost completely devoid of any ornament. The three elder boys wear turbanlike affairs upon their heads, while the old woman at the right-hand end of the line in the rear row has a peculiar kind of a headdress on. I have very carefully studied the faces of these individuals, and I am free to confess that, judging from their features, they seem to be capable of committing almost any species of barbarity.

The two girls shown in Fig. 6 are particularly interesting, especially the one sitting down, whom I understand the Battaks consider to be a great beauty. The one standing up, with the big earrings in her ears, has as veritable a face of a savage as I ever remember having seen anywhere. As in the case with the boys shown in Fig. 5, these girls likewise wear headdresses, but of somewhat though not a very different style. They, too, are but lightly attired, and possess the same set and wicked expression in their eyes. Yet, and notwithstanding this, and taking into