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    "source_title": "Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911)",
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    "chunk_id": "1911:battanni:916f1790639e",
    "title": "BATTANNI",
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    "verified_text": "battanni, or bhitani, a small tribe on the waziri border of the north-west frontier province of india. the battannis hold the hills on the borders of tank and bannu in the dera ismail khan district, from the gabar mountain on the north to the gomal valley on the south. they are only 3000 fighting men strong, and are generally regarded as the jackals of the waziris. their chief importance arises from the fact that no raids can be carried into british districts by the mahsud waziris without passing through battanni territory. a small british expedition against the battannis was led by lt.-col. rynd in 1880. under the excitement caused by the preaching of a fanatical mullah the mahsud waziris had attacked the town of gomal. the battannis failed to supply information as to their movements, and gave them a passage through their lands. the british troops accordingly stormed the hinis tangi defile in face of opposition, and burned the village of jandola. battas (dutch _battaks_), the inhabitants of the formerly independent batta country, in the central highlands of sumatra, now for the most part subjugated to the dutch government. the still independent area extends from 98 deg.-99 deg. 35' e., and 2 deg.-3 deg. 25' s. north-east of toba lake dwell the timor battas, and west of it the pakpak, but on its north (in the mountains which border on the east coast residency) the karo battas form a special group, which, by its dialects and ethnological character, appears to be allied to the gajus and allas occupying the interior of achin. the origin of the battas is doubtful. it is not known whether they were settled in sumatra before the hindu period. their language contains words of sanskrit origin and others referable to javanese, malay and tagal influence. their domain has been doubtless much curtailed, and their absorption into the achin and malay population seems to have been long going on. the battas are undoubtedly of malayan stock, and by most authorities are affiliated to that indonesian pre-malayan race which peopled the indian archipelago, expelling the aboriginal negritos, and in turn themselves submitting to the civilized malays. in many points the battas are physically quite different from the malay type. the average height of the men is 5 ft. 4 in.; of the women 4 ft. 8 in. in general build they are rather thickset, with broad shoulders and fairly muscular limbs. the colour of the skin ranges from dark brown to a yellowish tint, the darkness apparently quite independent of climatic influences or distinction of race. the skull is rather oval than round. in marked contrast to the malay type are the large, black, long-shaped eyes, beneath heavy, black or dark brown eyebrows. the cheek-bones are somewhat prominent, but less so than among the malays. the battas are dirty in their dress and dwellings and eat any kind of food, though they live chiefly on rice. they are remarkable as a people who in many ways are cultured and possess a written language of their own, and yet are cannibals. the more civilized of them around lake toba are good agriculturists and stock-breeders, and understand iron-smelting. they weave and dye cotton, make jewellery and krisses which are often of exquisite workmanship, bake pottery, and build picturesque chalet-like houses of two storeys. they have an organized government, hereditary chiefs, popular assemblies, and a written civil and penal code. there is even an antiquated postal system, the letter-boxes being the hollow tree trunks at crossroads. yet in spite of this comparative culture the battas have long been notorious for the most revolting forms of cannibalism. (see _memoirs of the life, &c., of sir t.s. raffles_, 1830.) the battas are the only lettered people of the indian archipelago who are not mahommedans. their religion is mainly confined to a belief in evil spirits; but they recognize three gods, a creator, a preserver and a destroyer, a trinity suggestive of hindu influence. up to the publication of dr h.n. van der tuuk's essay, _over schrift en uitspraak der tobasche taal_ (1855), our knowledge of the batta language was confined to lists of words more or less complete, chiefly to be found in w. marsden's _miscellaneous works_, in f.w. junghuhn's _battalander_, and in the _tijdschrift van het bataviaasch genootschap, _vol. iii. (1855). by his exhaustive works (_bataksch leesboek_, in 4 vols., 1861-1862; _bataksch-nederduitsch woordenboek_, 1861; _tobasche spraakkunst_, 1864-1867) van der tuuk made the batta language the most accessible of the various tongues spoken in sumatra. according to him, it is nearest akin to the old javanese and tagal, but a. schreiber (_die battas in ihrem verhaltnis zu den malaien von sumatra_, 1874) endeavoured to prove its closer affinity with the malay proper. like most languages spoken by less civilized tribes, batta is poor in general terms, but abounds in terms for special objects. the number of dialects is three, viz. the toba, the mandailing and the dairi dialects; the first and second have again two subdivisions each. the battas further possess six peculiar or recondite modes of speech, such as the _hata andung_, or language of the wakes, and the _hata poda_ or the soothsayer's language. a fair acquaintance with reading and writing is very general among them. their alphabet is said, with the rejang and lampong alphabets, to be of indian origin. the language is written on bark or bamboo staves from bottom to top, the lines being arranged from left to right. the literature consists chiefly in books on witchcraft, in stories, riddles, incantations, &c., and is mostly in prose, occasionally varied by verse.[1] see also \"reisen nach dem toba see,\" _petermanns mitteil_. (1883); modigliani, _fra i batacchi indipendenti_ (rome, 1892); neumann, \"het pane- en bilastroomgebied,\" _tydschr. aardr. gen._, 1885-1887; van dijk in the same periodical (1890-1895); wing easton in the _jaarboek voor het mynwezen_, 1894; niemann in the _encyclopaedia van nederlandsch-indie_, under the heading _bataks_, with very detailed bibliography; baron j. v. brenner, _besuch bei den kannibalen sumatras_ (wurzburg, 1893); h. breitenstein, _21 jahre in indien, java, sumatra_ (leipzig, 1899-1900); g.p. rouffaer, _die batik-kunst in niederlandisch-indien und ihre geschichte_ (haarlem, 1899). footnote: [1] mr c.a. van ophuijsen has published (in _bijd. tot land-, taalen volken-kunde_, 1886) an interesting collection of battak poetry. he describes a curious leaf language used by battak lovers, in which the name of some leaf or plant is substituted for the word with which it has greatest phonetic similarity.",
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