tory of this nature,
which his bride had long disputed with him. For a description of a
Malayan wedding, with an excellent plate representing the conclusion of
the ceremony and the sleeping apartment, I beg to refer the reader to
Captain Forrest's Voyage to New Guinea page 286 quarto edition. The
bed-place is described at page 232 and the processional car (per-arakan)
at page 241. His whole account of the domestic manners of the people of
Mindanao, at the court of which he lived on terms of familiarity, will be
found highly amusing.)

They sit up in state at night on raised cushions, in their best clothes
and trinkets. They are sometimes loaded on the occasion with all the
finery of their relations, or even the whole dusun, and carefully eased
of it when the ceremony is over. But this is not the case with the
children of persons of rank. I remember being present at the marriage of
a young woman, whose beauty would not have disgraced any country, with a
son of Raddin, prince of Madura, to whom the English gave protection from
the power of the Dutch after his father had fallen a sacrifice.* She was
decked in unborrowed plumes. Her dress was eminently calculated to do
justice to a fine person; her hair, in which consists their chief pride,
was disposed with extreme grace; and an uncommon elegance and taste were
displayed in the workmanship and adjustment of her ornaments. It must be
confessed however that this taste is by no means general, especially
amongst the country people. Simplicity, so essential to the idea, is the
characteristic of a rude and quite uncivilized people, and is again
adopted by men in their highest state of refinement. The Sumatrans stand
removed from both these extremes. Rich and splendid articles of dress and
furniture, though not often procured, are the objects of their vanity and
ambition.

(*Footnote. The circumstances of this disgraceful affair are preserved in
a book entitled A Voyage to the East Indies in 1747 and 1748. This Raddin
Tamanggung, a most intelligent and respectable man, died at Bencoolen in
the year 1790. His sons possess the good qualities of their father, and
are employed in the Company's service.)

The bimbangs are conducted with great decorum and regularity. The old
women are very attentive to the conduct of the girls, and the male
relations are highly jealous of any insults that may be shown them. A lad
at one of these entertainments asked another his opinion of a gadis who