Note 533 — Chapter VII

It is interesting to note that by the aid of the Lampong alphabet, South Sumatra, John Mathew reads the word Daibattah in the legend on the head-dress of a gigantic figure seen by Sir George Grey on the roof of a cave on the Glenelg river, North-west Australia ("The Cave Paintings of Australia," etc., in Journ. Anthr. Inst. 1894, p. 44 sq.). He quotes from Coleman's Mythology of the Hindus the statement that "the Battas of Sumatra believe in the existence of one supreme being, whom they name Debati Hasi Asi. Since completing the work of creation they suppose him to have remained perfectly quiescent, having wholly committed the government to his three sons, who do not govern in person, but by vakeels or proxies." Here is possibly another confirmation of the view that early Malayan migrations or expeditions, some even to Australia, took place in pre-Muhammadan times, long before the rise and diffusion of the Orang-Maláyu in the Archipelago.