same vessel; and this has an effect of legality similar to the bride-cake of the Romans, by sharing which the young couple become "parentes conferrenti." Finally, the bride asserts her independence by a fantastic resistance to the completion of her destiny, of which "sponsi vultus matitutinus signa sæpe offert."

Numerous ceremonies attend the course of pregnancy as well as birth; and when at length the wife becomes a mother, so important is the occurrence deemed that it is not unusual for her to change her name. Javanese names are commonly descriptive titles; and if a child, for instance, is called the Beautiful One, the mother is henceforward known, not by her own name, but as the Mother of the Beautiful One. The ceremonial of death is pleasing and affecting. The natural taste or sentiment of the islanders is at that point to which the refinement of England has only recently attained; and their cemeteries are always in a secluded and romantic spot, planted with solemn trees, and consecrated with flowers. These are the true temples of the heart and its affections. The barbarians of the eastern seas cannot die in peace unless with the prospect of being laid to rest in that city of the silent where their ancestors repose; and a family festival is held at stated times upon the spot, where the living renew their bonds of love with the dead.

The ceremony of saluting with the lips is unknown. A lover does not touch the palpable moisture of his mistress's lips, but inhales the more ethereal exhalations from her head and neck. The embrace is accompanied by an audible inspiration, and the word which designates it expresses the action of smelling. The ideas of female beauty are the same as in Europe, with the exception of colour; for a cheek to be lovely must be of a faint yellow, the hue of virgin gold. But with this delicacy of taste,

not altogether unintelligible to a European, there is conjoined a conventional abomination which no liberality can palliate. The betel must be chewed habitually even by the fairest mouth; and the lover compares his mistress's lips to the fissure in a ripe pomegranate, presenting red and black stains! The islanders rarely smoke tobacco, but chew the leaf when shred into fine parings; and their consumption of opium, in the manner of the Chinese, is said to be limited only by their means. On the other hand, although they manufacture a sort of beer from rice, and receive spontaneously abundance of a pleasing and intoxicating beverage from the palm tree, they are not addicted to the intemperance of Europe. Their other amusements are gaming of all kinds, which they follow to desperation; cock fighting, although never equalling in cowardly atrocity the "Welsh main" of England; combats of wild animals; hunting the deer, the wild hog, and the tiger; listening to fantastic legends, told in rudely-constructed verse; and a grave, slow, and stately dance, which men and women of all classes perform alike, and which is adapted to occasions of business, pleasure, and even religion, like the dances of the ancient Jews.

The arts, which form their more serious occupations, afford sufficient proof that the islanders are as yet in a low stage of social progress. When dress comes to be thought of by a savage people, it is the part of the women to provide it, their lords being occupied with the chase or other means of obtaining food; and in the Archipelago it is still the province of the sex, and of them alone, to prepare, weave, and dye the cotton which furnishes the clothing of the population. These fabrics, manufactured at unnecessary expense of time and material, are coarse but durable; and as a substitute for calico-printing, they

merely daub the cloth with melted wax in those places where the pattern is not to be drawn, and throw it into the dyeing vat. These stuffs are chiefly made at Celebes; but the Malay and Javanese women also weave a rich and heavy silk from materials imported from China. The Malays are superior goldsmiths, but even the beautiful filigree work of Sumatra is executed by means of a wire-drawer made out of an old iron hoop, a hammer head stuck in a block for an anvil, and a joint of bamboo applied to their own mouths for a blowpipe. Blacksmiths are skilful in the coarser kinds of work, and iron being much scarcer than gold their profession is proportionately esteemed. Crawford that the blade of the national kris, which every man wears, is merely a bit of ordinary iron; but later writers have discovered among the Dyaks of Borneo an art of tempering the metal so as to enable the sword to perform what would be considered a miracle in Europe. It must be recollected, however, that this quality would be thrown away upon the kris, which being merely intended for stabbing requires no elasticity, nor that exquisite edge with which the Dyaks are said to cut a gun-barrel in two.

says

The Dyaks, who had the reputation of being merely a race of disgusting cannibals, are described by Earl as a highly interesting people: but with one savage peculiarity. The men are brave, industrious, gentle; and the women beautiful, modest even to bashfulness, and their downcast eyes gleam through long silken lashes in a way which would render captivating much more common features. The little foible we have hinted at is a taste for cutting off people's heads. No Dyak can marry till he has obtained at least one trophy of this kind; but the houses of some of the chiefs are adorned with five hundred. The time is already past, however, when head

hunting was esteemed a mark of courage; for a man, without any stain upon his honour, may employ another to bring him a few of the indispensable articles. This would seem to indicate the approaching decay of the practice; and already, on the southern coasts, the Dyaks are ashamed of it, and on receiving a visit from their neighbours the Dutch hide away all heads but their own.

The foreign settlers in the Archipelago are chiefly Hindoos from the Deccan, Chinese, Arabs, and Europeans. The Chinese colonists are described as at once enterprising, keen, laborious, luxurious, sensual, debauched, and pusillanimous." The laws of the empire forbidding them to bring their women, they sometimes marry natives and settle in the country. The Arabs are said to be ambitious, intriguing, and bigoted, but often spirited, fair, and adventurous merchants. The Dutch, so far from improving in their new soil, appear to acquire the vices of the natives without losing their own. The women are cruel to their slaves, and even the blooming complexions we see in Holland degenerate in the Indian islands to the whiteness of death. Of the Spaniards, little worse is told than that they are ignorant and voluptuous. The English are not yet fairly acclimatised, and judgment as regards them must be deferred.

The part of the Asiatic continent on the west of the Philippine islands, is the empire of Anam, which extends along the shores of the China Sea from the Gulf of Siam, to the Gulf of Tonquin. The name is given to the country of those nations who speak the Anam language, but more especially the Cochin Chinese and Tonquinese, although a part of Cambodia and the little state of Siampa, where the language is only partially spoken, are now comprehended within the Anam territory. The

trade actually carried on by these countries with the British settlements is very limited considering their valuable productions, the great range of seaboard they possess, and their numerous navigable rivers. There is little doubt, however, that this will rapidly increase as piracy declines, which is at present the grand check to commerce in the China Sea. The following will give an idea of the existing amount of trade with Singapore.

The ports in Cochin China and Cambodia, from which vessels arrive, are Kangkao and Loknoi in Cambodia, and Turon and Saigon in Cochin China proper. The average number of vessels arriving from these ports are forty annually, bringing sugar, rice, oil, salt, and some other articles of minor importance. The vessels are usually smaller than the Chinese and Siamese junks. The total imports from Cochin China, during the official year 1842 and 1843, were valued at 254,785 dollars, and consisted of raw silk, 149 piculs; rice, 12,010 piculs; sugar, 27,540 piculs; and salt, 15,120 piculs. The gross exports during this period amounted to 227,848 dollars, consisting chiefly of cotton, 1,084 bales, and 985 piculs; British cotton goods, 3,588 pieces; opium, 263 chests; and woollens to the value of 25,378 dollars. During the same time, eighty-two boats, equal to 4,195 tons, arrived from Cochin China.

The whole line of coast from Cambodia Point to the most northern point of Tonquin, is bounded with islands covered with the richest vegetation, and many of them appearing like the tops of mountains rising suddenly from the sea, sometimes to the height of a thousand feet. The productions of Cambodia are similar to those of Siam and Ava; those of Cochin China, besides the exports mentioned above, are tobacco, coarse tea, cinnamon, cotton, pepper, wax, honey, and ivory; while Tonquin is