ÖÖI 8x 3 ^c- 0 - Acehbooks.org

Caufes of tfie
progrefs of
Maliometariifm
among
the Sumatrans.
Kingdom of
Menancabow
divided into
different fovereignties.
2«4
- S U M A T R A .
by people from Malacca. It does not feem probable, or confiftent with
the general courfe of Malay colonization, that they fhould have fubdued
an inland country; being found, in every ifland whither they have had
accefs, fettled uniformly on the fea coafts only ; to which they are naturally
confined by their invariable attachment to trade and piracy.
Perhaps it is lefs furprizing that this one kingdom fliould have been
compleatly converted to the Mahometan religion, than that fo many
diftridfo of the ifland, fliould remain, to this day, without any religion
at all. It is obfervable, that a perfon of this latter defcription, coming
to refide among the Malays, foon affimilates to them in manners, and
conforms to their religious practices. The love of novelty; the vanity
of learning; the fafcination of ceremony ; the contagion of example ;
veneration for what appears above his immediate comprehenfion, and
the innate activity of man's intellectual faculties, which, fpurred by
curiofity, prompts him to the acquisition of knowledge, whether true
or falfe : all confpire to make him embrace a fyftem of belief, and
fcheme of inftrudtion, in which there is nothing that militates againft
the prejudices he has already imbibed, but is rather congenial with them.
He relinquishes no favorite ancient worfhip, to adopt anew; and is manifeftly
a gainer by the exchange, when he barters, for a paradife and
eternal pleafures, fo fmall a confideration as the flefli of his forefkin.
By late accounts it appears that the kingdom of Menangcabow, even
in its limited State, is Iplit into different fovereignties. Two Rajas,
of Soorooafo, and Soongcy Tarap, claim a Share in the dominion, and in that
quality fent each a deputation to the Englifh chief at Padang, after the
capture of that place in 1781, congratulating him on the fuccefs of our
arms. PaJJamman •, a populous country, and rich in gold, caflia, and
camphire; which immediately borders on Menangcabow, to the northward,
now difclaims all manner of dependance on it. This is
governed by two rajas, of Sablooan, and Canallee, who boaft an origin
of high antiquity. One of them preferves, as his pefakko (reliek), the
bark of a tree, in which his anceftor was nurfed in the woods, before
the
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