arks
on the subject I have met with are by Mr. Logan in his _Journal of the
Ind. Arch._ II. 610.

The "kingdoms" were certainly many more than eight throughout the island.
At a later day De Barros enumerates 29 on the coast alone. Crawford
reckons 15 different nations and languages on Sumatra and its dependent
isles, of which 11 belong to the great island itself.

(_Hist. of Ind. Arch._ III. 482; _Valentyn_, V. (Sumatra), p. 5; _Desc.
Dict._ p. 7, 417; Gildemeister, p. 193; _Crawf. Malay Dict._ 119; _J. Ind.
Arch._ V. 313.)

NOTE 3.--The kingdom of PARLAK is mentioned in the _Shijarat Malayu_ or
Malay Chronicle, and also in a Malay History of the Kings of Pasei, of
which an abstract is given by Dulaurier, in connection with the other
states of which we shall speak presently. It is also mentioned (_Barlak_),
as a city of the Archipelago, by Rashiduddin. Of its extent we have no
knowledge, but the position (probably of its northern extremity) is
preserved in the native name, _Tanjong_ (i.e. Cape) _Parlak_ of the N.E.
horn of Sumatra, called by European seamen "Diamond Point," whilst the
river and town of _Perla_, about 32 miles south of that point, indicate, I
have little doubt, the site of the old capital.[1] Indeed in Malombra's
Ptolemy (Venice, 1574), I find the next city of Sumatra beyond _Pacen_
marked as _Pulaca_.

The form _Ferlec_ shows that Polo got it from the Arabs, who having no _p_
often replace that letter by _f_. It is notable that the Malay alphabet,
which is that of the Arabic with necessary modifications, represents the
sound _p_ not by the Persian _pe_ ([Arabic]), but by the Arabic _fe_
([Arabic]), with three dots instead of one ([Arabic]).

A Malay chronicle of Achin dates the accession of the first Mahomedan king
of that state, the nearest point of Sumatra to India and Arabia, in the
year answering to A.D. 1205, and this is the earliest conversion among the
Malays on record. It is doubtful, indeed, whether there _were_ Kings of
_Achin_ in 1205, or for centuries after (unless indeed _Lambri_ is to be
regarded as Achin), but the introduction of Islam may be confidently
assigned to that age.

The notice of the Hill-people, who lived like beasts and ate human flesh,
presumably attaches to the Battas or Bataks, occupying high table-lands in
the interior of Sumatra. They do not now extend north beyond lat. 3 deg.
The interior of Northern Sumatra seems to remain a _terra incognita_, and
even with the