."

GRANDY. "When once superstition usurps the throne of reason,
Charles, it is a difficult task to displace her. There are so many
pleasing fallacies connected with her sway over the naturally
indolent mind of man, that reason is altogether banished, and
superstition's authority knows no bounds."

MR. STANLEY. "Java produces, in great abundance, the _Hirundo
esculenta_, a species of swallow, whose nests are used as an article
of luxurious food among the Chinese. This nest has the shape of a
common swallow's nest, and the appearance of ill-connected
isinglass. The bird always builds in the caves of the rocks, at a
distance from any human dwelling. Along the sea-shore, these nests
are particularly abundant, the caverns there being more frequent.
The finest are those obtained before the nest has been contaminated
by young birds. Some of the caverns are very difficult of access,
and dangerous to climb; so that none can collect the nests but
persons accustomed to the trade from their youth."

GEORGE. "Oh, yes! I remember all the particulars of that business;
we were told at one of our meetings; but I do not care to taste
them: it is both nasty and cruel to eat bird's-nests."

CHARLES. "Sumatra is, next to Borneo, the largest island in the
Eastern seas. It is situated in the midst of the torrid zone, is
upwards of 1000 miles long, nearly 200 in breadth, and is divided
from Java by the Straits of Sunda.

"The Sumatrans are a well-made people, with yellow complexions,
sometimes inclining to white. They have some of the customs of the
South Sea Islanders; amongst others, those barbarous practices of
flattening the noses, and compressing the heads of children
newly-born, whilst the skull is yet soft or _cartilaginous_. They
likewise pull out the ears of infants to make them stand at an angle
from the head. They file, blacken, and otherwise disfigure the
teeth; and the great men sometimes set theirs in gold, by casing the
under row with a plate of that metal."

GEORGE. "Is Sumatra a gold country?"

"Why," said Mr. Wilton, smiling, "have you never heard of the gold
of Mount Ophir? Well, that is the name of the highest mountain in
Sumatra."

GEORGE. "Then there is gold in Sumatra, and I suppose it is washed
down by the rivers. Is there any other metal there?"

MR. WILTON. "Gold is the most abundant; but saltpetre and naphtha
are among the products. Quantities of rice are grown here, and a
singular method is adopted for