nd veneration for the
establishments of antiquity, contributes to strengthen considerably the
opinion I have advanced.

GAMING.

Through every rank of the people there prevails a strong spirit of
gaming, which is a vice that readily insinuates itself into minds
naturally indisposed to the avocations of industry; and, being in general
a sedentary occupation, is more adapted to a warm climate, where bodily
exertion is in few instances considered as an amusement.

DICE. OTHER MODES.

Beside the common species of gambling with dice, which, from the term
dadu applied to it, was evidently introduced by the Portuguese, they have
several others; as the judi, a mode of playing with small shells, which
are taken up by handfuls, and, being counted out by a given number at a
time (generally that of the party engaged), the success is determined by
the fractional number remaining, the amount of which is previously
guessed at by each of the party.

CHESS.

They have also various games on chequered boards or other delineations,
and persons of superior rank are in general versed in the game of chess,
which they term main gajah, or the game of the elephant, naming the
pieces as follows: king, raja; queen or vizir, mantri; bishop or
elephant, gajah; knight or horse, kuda; castle, rook, or chariot, ter;
and pawn or foot-soldier, bidak. For check they use the word sah; and for
checkmate, mat or mati. Among these names the only one that appears to
require observation as being peculiar is that for the castle or rook,
which they have borrowed from the Tamul language of the peninsula of
India, wherein the word ter (answering to the Sanskrit rat'ha) signifies
a chariot (particularly such as are drawn in the processions of certain
divinities), and not unaptly transferred to this military game to
complete the constituent parts of an army. Gambling, especially with
dice, is rigorously forbidden throughout the pepper districts, because it
is not only the child, but the parent of idleness, and by the events of
play often throws whole villages into confusion. Debts contracted on this
account are declared to be void.

COCK-FIGHTING.

To cock-fighting they are still more passionately addicted, and it is
indulged to them under certain regulations. Where they are perfectly
independent their propensity to it is so great that it resembles rather a
serious occupation than a sport. You seldom meet a man travelling in the
country without a cock unde