Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

100 AUSTEALASIA.rule, owing to the high price of the bride, although another form of union, ofmatriarchal origin, also exists, according to which the husband is purchased bythe wife. Being regarded as merely so much movable property, he may even beseized for debt, and bequeathed as a legacy to the testator's heirs.Traces survive of the Hindu religions, forthe Battas recognise a triune diety,Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer ; and also admit the existence of other divinitiesand genii, to whom they give the slightly modified Indian name of dipbata (devate).Fig. 38. Inhabitants of Sumatra.Scale 1:15,0fK100O.But religious worship enters very little into their daily life. They can scarcelybe said to have any regular ceremonial, and there are only one or two templesin the country. The natives are mostly satisfied with invoking the little idolsthey always carry about with them in pouches, and are most concerned in circumventingthe evil spirits by ingenious devices. Family groups and whole communeshave been known to secure the protection of some powerful patron byburying a child alive, under the belief that its spirit will henceforth watch overtheir plantations. Chiefs and nobles are supposed to survive in the after-world.