Having noticed some similarities as regards birth customs, as
described in Dr. Frazer's "Golden Bough," between the Khasis and
certain inhabitants of the Dutch East Indies, I wrote to the Dutch
authorities in Batavia requesting certain further information. My
application was treated with the greatest courtesy, and I am indebted
to the kindness of the President, his secretary, and Mr. C. M. Pleyte,
Lecturer of Indonesian Ethnology at the Gymnasium of William III.,
at Batavia, for some interesting as well as valuable information. With
reference to possible Malay influence in the countries inhabited by the
people who speak the Mon-Khmêr group of languages in Further India, it
was thought desirable to ascertain whether any of the people inhabiting
the Dutch East Indies possessed anything in common with the Khasis, who
also belong to the Mon-Khmêr group. There are, according to Mr. Pleyte,
pure matriarchal customs to be found amongst the Minangkabe Malays
inhabiting the Padang uplands and adjacent countries, in Sumatra,
in Agam, the fifty Kotas, and Tanah Datar, more or less mixed with
patriarchal institutions; they are equally followed by the tribes
inhabiting parts of Korinchi and other places. The apparently strong
survival of the matriarchate in parts of the island of Sumatra,
as compared with this corresponding most characteristic feature
of the Khasis, is a point for consideration. Mr. Pleyte goes on
to state "regarding ancestor-worship, it may be said that this
is found everywhere throughout the whole Archipelago; even the
tribes that have already adopted Islam, venerate the spirits of
their departed." The same might be said of some of the Khasis who
have accepted Christianity, and much more of the Japanese. I would
here refer the reader to the chapter on "Ancestor-worship." In the
Southern Moluccas the placenta is mixed with ashes, placed in a pot,
and hung on a tree; a similar custom is observed in Mandeling, on
the west coast of Sumatra. This is a custom universally observed