Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/319

Rh sharp spikes or, anyway, very rough. There were men with tails “a span in length, like those of the dog, but not covered with hair.” He refers to the ourang-utan, which means wild man. We are also told that the natives caught monkeys, shaved off the hair save in such places as it is found on the human body, giving them the appearance of little men. These they dried and preserved with camphor and other drugs, and sent them in little boxes to India and elsewhere as specimens of a dwarf or pigmy race—faking for curio-hunters even then!

Marco Polo had 2000 men with him during his stay in Sumatra, called by him Lesser Java.

Surely there never was such an amazing history as his. In China now you see him enshrined in bronze amongst Buddhas in the temples.

Padang, the chief town of Sumatra, has 20,000 inhabitants—Europeans, Arabs, Chinese, Malays, etc.—and is a beautiful place. At Ache, which has a large garrison, there are 14,000 inhabitants, with 490 miles ofrailway. Benkulen, with 12,000, is now rather desolate, and Palembang, 45 miles up a river and accessible to large ships, has a garrison and 60,000 inhabitants,of whom roo are Europeans. Sumatra boasts of wonderful mountains, lakes, and forests, the most quaint of peaked houses, and a varied race of Javanese, Malays, Klings, Batteks, and so on. There is coal in quantity, as well as most other minerals.

[At the north of Sumatra, about two days’ sail from Singapore, lies Sabang (Pulo Weh), which eleven years ago, in 1900, was but a small place. A depôt for coal was established by the Dutch at Weh, and Sabang possessing an excellent harbour and climate, it has rrade remarkable progress. There is deep water in the harbour, a large extent of wharves and sheds capable of storing 25,000 tons of