Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 7, 2025
The fright, which would go nigh to destroy the intellects of a reasonable man, may perhaps have under contrary circumstances an opposite effect. The skill of the Sumatrans in any of the sciences, is, as may be presumed, very limited. Some however I have met with who, in arithmetic, could multiply and divide, by a single multiplier or divisor, several places of figures.
The Malays and the other native Sumatrans differ more in the features of their mind than in those of their person. They seem rather to be sinking into obscurity, though with opportunities of improvement, than emerging from thence to a state of civil or political importance.
They hold the natives of the island in contempt, have a degree of antipathy towards them, and enjoy any mischief they can do them; and these in their turn regard the Caffres as devils half humanized. The practice said to prevail elsewhere of men selling themselves for slaves is repugnant to the customs of the Sumatrans, as it seems to reason.
In Europe the absolute distinction between rich and poor, though too sensibly felt, is not insisted upon in speculation, but rather denied or explained away in general reasoning. Among the Sumatrans it is coolly acknowledged, and a man without property, family, or connexions never, in the partiality of self-love, considers his own life as being of equal value with that of a man of substance.
The utmost indeed we can pretend to ascertain is what the natives themselves believe to have been their ancient history; and it is proper to remark that in the present question there can be no suspicion of bias from national vanity, as we have reason to presume that the authors of these books were not Sumatrans.
Among the plates of Lord Macartney's Embassy will be found the representation of a similar game, as practised by the natives of Cochinchina. The Sumatrans, and more particularly the Malays, are much attached, in common with many other eastern people, to the custom of smoking opium.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking