The latest and most authentic statement of the kind refers to a small tribe called Birhors, existing in the wildest parts of Chota Nagpur and Jashpur, west of Bengal, and is given by an accomplished Indian ethnologist, Colonel Dalton.  “They were wretched-looking objects ... assuring me that they had themselves given up the practice, they admitted that their fathers were in the habit of disposing of their dead in the manner indicated, viz., by feasting on the bodies; but they declared that they never shortened life to provide such feast, and shrunk with horror at the idea of any bodies but those of their own blood relations being served up at them!” (J.A.S.B. XXXIV.  Pt.  II. 18.) The same practice has been attributed recently, but only on hearsay, to a tribe of N. Guinea called Tarungares.

The Battas now bury their dead, after keeping the body a considerable time.  But the people of Nias and the Batu Islands, whom Junghuhn considers to be of common origin with the Battas, do not bury, but expose the bodies in coffins upon rocks by the sea.  And the small and very peculiar people of the Paggi Islands expose their dead on bamboo platforms in the forest.  It is quite probable that such customs existed in the north of Sumatra also; indeed they may still exist, for the interior seems unknown.  We do hear of pagan hill-people inland from Pedir who make descents upon the coast, (Junghuhn II. 140; Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal, etc. 2nd year, No. 4; Nouv.  Ann. des.  V. XVIII.)

[1] Marsden, 1st ed. p. 291.

[2] Veth’s Atchin, 1873, p. 37.

[3] It might be supposed that Varthema had stolen from Serano; but the
    book of the former was published in 1510.

[4] Castanheda speaks of Pacem as the best port of the land:  “standing on
    the bank of a river on marshy ground about a league inland; and at
    the mouth of the river there are some houses of timber where a customs
    collector was stationed to exact duties at the anchorage from the
    ships which touched there.” (Bk.  II. ch. iii.) This agrees with Ibn
    Batuta’s account of Sumatra, 4 miles from its port. [A village named
    Samudra discovered in our days near Pasei is perhaps a remnant of the
    kingdom of Samara. (Merveilles de l’Inde, p. 234.)—­H.C.]

[5] If Mr. Phillips had given particulars about his map and quotations, as
    to date, author, etc., it would have given them more value.  He leaves
    this vague.

CHAPTER XI.

OF THE KINGDOMS OF LAMBRI AND FANSUR.

When you leave that kingdom you come to another which is called LAMBRI. [NOTE 1] The people are Idolaters, and call themselves the subjects of the Great Kaan.  They have plenty of Camphor and of all sorts of other spices.  They also have brazil in great quantities.  This they sow, and when it is grown to the size of a small shoot they take it up and transplant it; then they let it grow for three years, after which they tear it up by the root.  You must know that Messer Marco Polo aforesaid brought some seed of the brazil, such as they sow, to Venice with him, and had it sown there; but never a thing came up.  And I fancy it was because the climate was too cold.