Alphabet Key To History Of Mankind

Author(s): David Diringer
Publisher: Hutchinsons Scientific and Technical Publications

Page 429

428
THE ALPHABET
mainly of a high mountain chain running down its western flank like a backbone. Its population has therefore never been large, although the elimination of the old inter-tribal quarrels, improved health conditions, and immigration of native farmers from other East Indian islands (especially from Java, whence in 1939 about 150,000 people emigrated to Sumatra), increased its population from 3,168,000 in 1900 to about eight and a-half million at the outbreak of the war with Japan.
Many languages-there are fourteen main Malaysian dialects, some with many sub-dialects and a number of scripts are used by the different peoples of the island. The Achinese or Achehnese numbering So0,000, who live in north-western Sumatra, and the Coastal Malays, numbering nowadays nearly three and a-half million, who occupy the entire eastern coast and nearly half of the southern coast, are the most advanced of the Sumatran races. Both these peoples are Moslems, and they adopted the Arabic alphabet; the Malay press, however, uses the Roman alphabet. The Menangkabaus or Minangkabaus, who live in the central-western part of the island, and number something more than two millions, formed at one time a powerful kingdom covering the greater part of central Sumatra. According to R. O. Winstedt, the great authority on the Malayan languages, the Minangkabaus are the highland inheritors of Sri Vijaya, and their ruling family claimed to be descended from the Sailendra dynasty which had ruled Sri Vijaya. Formerly, the Minangkabaus used the Javanese character; nowadays, they employ the Arabic script.
Sumatran Native Characters
The other principal native peoples, namely the Bataks, the Redjangs and the Lampongs, possess scripts of their own. All these characters (Fig. 154, col. 31-34, and Fig. 194, 7-9), directly or indirectly originated from the Kavi or Old Javanese character.
Batak
The Bataks, of whom there are more than one million, are a peculiar and interesting race. They were cannibals not so very long ago, and although that cruel custom and slavery have disappeared, many of their old habits are still followed. For the most part, they are pagans; some have been recently converted to Christianity, whilst Islam has never gained a foothold among them. They occupy the greater part of the residency of Tapanoeli, and are centred in the mountainous region around the great lake Toba, which was considered as sacred by the Bataks, and many foreigners who dared to penetrate so far, had to pay for their courage by death and were possibly eaten. A large part of the northern and the western coasts is also inhabited by the Bataks. They are divided into several groups, differing considerably in language and customs, the most important of the tribes being that of the Tobas, who live on the southern shore of Lake Toba.
The art of writing has been known among the Bataks from a date