This descent did not occupy us more than twenty minutes, so that the valley must lie at a great height above the level of the sea; but it was yet a few days march to the inhabited and cultivated land on the border of the great lake, which I conjecture to be situated directly behind Indrapura, or north-east from the mouth of that river.  There are two lakes, but one of them is inconsiderable.  I sailed for some time on the former, which may be nearly as broad as the strait between Bencoolen and Rat Island.  My companions estimated it at seven miles; but the eye is liable to much deception, and, having seen nothing for many days but rivulets, the grandeur of the sheet of water, when it first burst upon our sight, perhaps induced us to form too high a notion of its extent.  Its banks were studded with villages; it abounds with fish, particularly the summah, a species of cyprinus; its waters are clear and beautiful from the reflection of the black and shining sand which covers the bottom in many places to the depth of eight or ten inches.

INHABITANTS.

The inhabitants are below the common stature of the Malays, with harder visages and higher cheekbones, well knit in their limbs, and active; not deficient in hospitality, but jealous of strangers.  The women, excepting a few of the daughters of the chiefs, were in general ill-favoured, and even savage in their aspect.  At the village of In-juan on the borders of the lake I saw some of them with rings of copper and shells among their hair; they wore destars round their heads like the men, and almost all of them had siwars or small daggers at their sides.  They were not shut up or concealed from us, but mixed with our party, on the contrary, with much frankness.

BUILDINGS.

The people dwell in hordes, many families being crowded together in one long building.  That in which I lived gave shelter to twenty-five families.  The front was one long undivided verandah, where the unmarried men slept; the back part was partitioned into small cabins, each of which had a round hole with a door to fit it, and through this the female inmates crept backwards and forwards in the most awkward manner and ridiculous posture.  This house was in length two hundred and thirty feet, and elevated from the ground.  Those belonging to the chiefs were smaller, well constructed of timber and plank, and covered with shingles or thin plates of board bound on with rattans, about the size and having much the appearance of our slates.

DRESSES.

The dresses of the young women of rank were pretty enough.  A large blue turband, woven with silver chains, which, meeting behind and crossing, were fastened to the earrings in festoons, decorated their heads.  In this was placed a large plume of cock’s feathers, bending forward over the face.  The jacket was blue, of a silky texture, their own work, and bordered with small gold chain.  The body-dress, likewise of their own weaving, was of cotton mingled with silk, richly striped and mixed with gold thread; but they wear it no lower than the knees.  The youths of fashion were in a kind of harlequin habit, the forepart of the trousers white, the back-part blue; their jacket after the same fashion.  They delighted much in an instrument made from some part of the iju palm-tree, which resembled and produced a sound like the jews-harp.