ÖÖI 8x 3 ^c- 0 - Acehbooks.org

eafe.
Infanity.
*5$ S U M A T R A.
tially, in a country where the diforder makes its appearance at diftant
intervals only ; unlefs thofe periods could be feized, and the attempts
made, when and where there might be well founded apprehenfion of its
being communicated in the natural way. A diftemper much refembling
the fmall pox, and in its firft ftages miftaken for it, is not uncommon.
It caufes an alarm, but does not prove mortal, and is probably what we
term the chicken pox.
The venereal difeafe, though common in the Malay bazars, is in the
inland country almoft unknown. A man returning to his village, with
the infection, is fhunned by the inhabitants as an unclean and interdidhd
perfon. The Malays cure it with the decodion of a china root, called
by themgadicng, which caufes a falivation.
When a man is by ficknefs, or othervvife, deprived of his reafon, or when
fubjecT: to convulfion fits, they imagine him pofTefied by an evil fpirit,
and their ceremony of exorcifm, is by putting the unfortunate wmch.
into a hut, which they fet fire to about his ears, fuffering him to make
his efcape through the flames in the beft manner he can. The fright,
which would go nigh to deftroy the intellects of a reafonable man, may
perhaps have, under contrary circumflances, an oppofite effeö:.
Sciences.
The flcill of the Sumatrans in any of the fcienees, is, as may be pre»
Arithmetic. fumed, very limited. Some, however, I have met with, who, in arithmetic,
could multiply and divide, by a fingle multiplier or divifor, feveral
places of figures. Tens of thoufands flaxa J are the higheft clafs of
numbers the Malay language has a name for. In counting over a quantity
of fmall articles, each tenth, and afterwards each hundredth piece,
is put afide; which method is juft confonant with the progrefs of fcientific
numeration, and probably was the origin of it. When they may
have occafion to recollect at a diftance of time, the fale of any commodities
they are carrying to market, or the like, the country people often
aflift their memory, by tying knots on a firing, which is produced when
they want to fpecify the number. The Peruvian quipos were, I fuppofe»
an improvement upon this fimple invention.
They