Hidden Bibliographic Details
| Other authors / contributors: | University of Chicago. Library. Codex Ms. 82d.
University of Chicago. Library. Special Collections Research Center.
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| Provenance: | Collected by Frederick Starr, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago, 1892-1923.
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| Notes: | Page orientation: landscape.
Condition: The manuscript is reasonably well preserved and generally well-readable. Due to the lack of a wooden cover the pages on the bottom of the manuscript have suffered extensive damages.
Physical appearance: The bark book contains only a few illustrations apart from the existence of a number of bindu metmet (subchapter marker), and a diagram of the Batak calendar.
Description: Pustaha (bark book) made by the Batak people in North Sumatra (Indonesia) most likely in the nineteenth century. The first part of the manuscript is concerned with the auspicious signs that a datu (magician) can detect by observing the death of a slaughtered chicken. The first subchapters all begin with jaha manuk (when the chicken...). Beginning from A13 all subsequent subchapter on side A and the first subchapters on side B begin with jaha dumatang (when ... comes, when ... happens) but are still part of the divination by means of a chicken. on B16 the subchapter starts with poda ni (Instructions to), and so does the first subchapter on B10. The second subchapter of B10 starts with Mesa bulan si pahasada (Mesa is the first month), and the following subchapters address one month after the other.
Paper and ink: The manuscript is made of the bast (inner bark) of the aquilaria tree. Only black ink has been used in this manuscript.
BINDU GODANG (large bindu) denotes a large ornament which serves as a chapter marker. BINDU denotes a smaller ornament which may introduce a new subject matter. BM stands for bindu metmet (small bindu) which serves as a paragraph markers. Punctuations such as full stops or commas are not known in the Batak script..
In Batak (Poda, Toba script).
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| Summary: | Batak divination, calendar.
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| Cumulative Index / Finding Aids Note: | Description available in the Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.
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