Voorhoeve P. The Chester Beatty library: A Catalogue of the Batak manuscripts

Dublin, 1961.Among the treasures in Sir Chester Betty's collections the Batak manuscripts from the island of 'Sumatra in Indonesia hold a very modest place. Neither in age nor in artistic quality can they be compared with the documents of Christian and Islamic art and literature that have made this library famous. Still they are by no means without interest. though none of them is older than 150 years, they belong to a very ancient cultural tradition. Magic, divination and medicine are the subjects that occupied the minds of the priests and sorcerers of the Balak people for many centuries. As an aid to memory of their knowledge in these fields they used the magical art of writing.