ssed and armed with a kris, seated in the circle of the old men of the
dusun, and attending to their debates with a gravity of countenance not
surpassed by their grandfathers. Thus initiated they are qualified to
deliver an opinion in public at a time of life when an English schoolboy
could scarcely return an answer to a question beyond the limits of his
grammar or syntax, which he has learned by rote. It is not a little
unaccountable that this people, who hold the art of speaking in such high
esteem, and evidently pique themselves on the attainment of it, should
yet take so much pains to destroy the organs of speech in filing down and
otherwise disfiguring their teeth; and likewise adopt the uncouth
practice of filling their mouths with betel whenever they prepare to hold
forth. We must conclude that it is not upon the graces of elocution they
value an orator, but his artful and judicious management of the subject
matter; together with a copiousness of phrase, a perspicuity of thought,
an advantageous arrangement, and a readiness, especially, at unravelling
the difficulties and intricacies of their suits.

CHILD-BEARING.

The curse entailed on women in the article of child-bearing does not fall
so heavy in this as in the northern countries. Their pregnancy scarcely
at any period prevents their attendance on the ordinary domestic duties;
and usually within a few hours after their delivery they walk to the
bathing-place, at a small distance from the house. The presence of a sage
femme is often esteemed superfluous. The facility of parturition may
probably be owing to the relaxation of the frame from the warmth of the
climate; to which cause also may be attributed the paucity of children
borne by the Sumatran women and the early decay of their beauty and
strength. They have the tokens of old age at a season of life when
European women have not passed their prime. They are like the fruits of
the country, soon ripe and soon decayed. They bear children before
fifteen, are generally past it at thirty, and grey-headed and shrivelled
at forty. I do not recollect hearing of any woman who had six children
except the wife of Raddin of Madura, who had more; and she, contrary to
the universal custom, did not give suck to hers.

TREATMENT OF CHILDREN.

Mothers carry the children not on the arm, as our nurses do, but
straddling on the hip, and usually supported by a cloth which ties in a
knot on the opposite shoulder. This practice