women are dark and coarse featured, with blackened teeth, and small pretensions to beauty; but there is something pleasing in their perpetual cheerfulness and lively good-nature. They take great pride in long hair, considering the reverse as a token of degeneracy, and a mark of vulgarity.

The Cochin Chinese have dramatic performances, in which female actors are introduced. Their voices, when singing, are said to be shrill and warbling, and their dancing full of graceful gestures and attitudes.

Men and women of the common class dress nearly alike. Both wear a brown or blue frock, with black nankeen trowsers, made very wide. They have neither stockings nor shoes. The women wear their long hair sometimes twisted on the top of the head, and sometimes hanging in loose flowing tresses. To shield them from the sun they have broad hats, like an inverted saucer, woven with the fibres of bamboo, and made impervious to water by means of a fine varnish. These hats are fastened under the chin by a slender wooden bow, like the handle of a pail; the rich have it made of ivory, ebony, silver, or gold. The higher classes dress very much like the wealthy Chinese. Both ladies and gentlemen, when they go abroad, have attendants to carry their fans, and à box made of fragrant wood, often inlaid with gold and silver, to contain their areca, betel, &c. Garments are seldom changed till they begin to fall in pieces, and their habits are in general so uncleanly that a near approach to them is not pleasant.

The Siamese are a tawny people, with short black hair, which both sexes cut quite short. They have faces broad in the middle, and narrowing toward the forehead and the chin. Their ears are naturally large; and, like many other nations in the torrid zone, they weigh them down with heavy ornaments, so that one might thrust several fingers through the distended apertures.

Long nails, particularly on the right hand, are considered a mark of gentility. They often attain a growth of several inches; and when women wish to be particularly elegant, they wear artificial ones four inches long.

The Siamese bathe very frequently, and anoint themselves with perfumes. The interior of their houses is likewise very neat. They seldom wear any ornament about the head, except ear-rings; and none but the young wear bracelets. Their common clothing is very slight; consisting merely of a large piece of calico, tied above the hips, and falling to the feet.

Women enjoy a considerable degree of freedom. When a young man sends his female friends to ask a damsel in marriage, her parents consult their daughter's inclination; and if they approve the match, magicians are immediately called to cast nativities and consult the stars for omens. The lover pays two or three visits to his betrothed, bringing presents of fruit and betel. At the third visit, the relations sign contracts, and pay the dowA few days after, the priests sprinkle the young

ry.

couple with consecrated water, and repeat prayers. The bride's parents keep up feasting, dancing, and music for several days; and sometimes months elapse before the young people commence housekeeping for themselves.

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The Siamese laws allow of several wives, but the wealthy only avail themselves of this indulgence. Superior privileges are conferred on the first wife, and upon her children. The children of the others are not allowed to use the familiar appellation of father," but are required to say, "Mr. father." The first wife may be divorced, but cannot be sold, like the others. In case of divorce, she may claim the first, third, fifth child, and so on, through the odd numbers. The husband has a right to all the even numbers; of course, the mother sometimes has a larger share than the father.

All the property left by a husband belongs to the first wife. She likewise inherits his authority; but she cannot sell the even-number children, who in case of division would have belonged to their father.

The poorer classes work on the land, and transact business for their husbands, during the half of each year, which they are obliged to spend in the service of a despotic prince. They take great care of their children, especially of their daughters, and are generally very virtuous and modest. The Siamese, unlike their neighbors of Cochin China, are very scrupulous concerning the character of their women, with which they conceive their own honor to be intimately connected. Their laws are very severe.

An unfaithful wife is exposed alive to tigers, or sold as a slave.

These people have a singular religious ceremony, which reminds one of the Jewish scape-goat. An infamous woman is carried about on a barrow, accompanied with trumpets and hautboys. Every one curses her, and pelts her with dirt. She is then carried out of the town, left among bushes and thorns, and forbidden ever to return to the city. They have a superstition that this ceremony will avert all threatened evils from them to her.

The Siamese priests are not allowed to marry, on pain of being burnt to death.

There are female convents in Siam, but no woman is allowed to take the vow before she is fifty years old. When a man is condemned for any crime, his innocent family suffer with him; and wives and children are not unfrequently gambled away at games of chance. The women marry very young. It is a common thing to see wives and mothers of twelve years old.

Like other nations in the vicinity, they smoke a good deal, and universally color their teeth black.

The Malays are a proud and revengeful people, excessively jealous of their women. The lower classes of females are, however, allowed to go about in public, and transact various kinds of business, with a hardihood that braves all manner of fatigue and exposure. The women, of course, imbibe something of the fierce character of the men. No lover

can hope to find favor in their eyes, until he can produce a number of human skulls, which he has severed from the bodies. When attacked by enemies, they fight by the side of their husbands and brothers, with a fiery courage amounting to desperation.

Their manner of living is almost as simple and rude as that of savages. The women are generally well shaped, with tawny complexions, oval faces, expressive eyes, large mouths with thin lips, and teeth blackened by chewing betel. They are fond of gallantry, dress, and jewels. The higher class wear a muslin garment, descending to the feet, and fastened with a girdle at the waist; and to this they add a short jacket. They frequently have ear-rings, bracelets, and gold chains, and fasten their long shining black hair at the top of the head with a gold pin. The common people of both sexes dress almost exactly alike; their clothing consisting merely of a cloth wrapped about the waist, fastened by a belt, in which they carry their daggers.

The children in Malacca, and the neighboring nations, universally go without clothing.

The Chinese women have broad unmeaning faces; small, lively eyes, obliquely placed, with eyelids rounding into each other at the corners, not forming an angle, as in Europeans; their hair is black; lips rather thick and rosy; and their complexion is a yellowish brown; excepting some inhabitants of the northern provinces, who are fairer. They generally paint their faces so as to give a strong carnation tint