ab nature,
retaining the vindictive and fanatical traits of ancestral character.
The women, in rainbow garb, use their floating _slandangs_ as
improvised _yashmaks_, holding the red and yellow folds before their
faces in approved Moslem fashion, when passing a man. Makassar,
formerly ruled by a line of powerful princes as an independent fief,
but now subject to a Dutch Governor, has become the capital of Celebes,
and occupies an important commercial position. The wharves are filled
with bales of _copra_, mother-of-pearl shells, plumage of native birds,
dried fish, bundles of rattan, and precious woods from the primeval
forests of the interior. The boom of the fisherman's drum echoes across
the water in constant reverberations, a secularised relic of the
religious past, originally serving the purpose of the Mohammedan call
to prayer, but now fulfilling the prosaic office of signalling the
arrival or departure of boats, though the devout mariner still appeals
by drum to the Heavenly Powers for fair weather and a good haul of
fish. The official buildings of Makassar, including the Dutch
Governor's palace, face a green _aloon-aloon_, flanked by superb
avenues of kanari and tamarind trees. The hoary fort, scarcely
distinguishable from the solid rock which supports it, was captured
from the King of Goa by a Dutch admiral, who thrust his sword through
an adjacent cocoanut palm, to symbolise his intention of piercing the
hearts of all who resisted the Treaty afterwards drawn up. The sword
and cocoanut now form part of the heraldic arms belonging to Makassar.

Local costume affords a continuous feast of colour, and streets and
avenues appear like moving tulip beds, the broad blue sky and dazzling
sunshine of this tropical land intensifying every glowing tint of robe,
fruit, and flower. In the umber shadows of dusky _tokos_, gold-beaters
fashion those red-gold ornaments rich in barbaric beauty, for which
Makassar has ever been renowned. Portuguese art glorifies native
workmanship, and the Dutch carry on the traditions of the past, merely
simplifying the old methods by introducing modern tools to lighten the
labour of production. Silken scarves, and elaborately-painted _battek_,
woven with gold and silver thread, swing from the black rafters of dim
corridors, and countless treasures of the deep, in shells and coral of
rich and delicate colouring, manifest the infinite variety of Nature's
handiwork. From the crowded lanes, with the