uld astonish
a European to visit one of their assemblies. We enter a gloomy palm-leaf
hut, in which two or three very dim lamps barely render darkness
visible. The floor is of black sandy earth, the roof hid in a smoky
impenetrable blackness; two or three benches stand against the walls,
and the orchestra consists of a fiddle, a fife, a drum, and a triangle.
There is plenty of company, consisting of young men and women, all very
neatly dressed in white and black--a true Portuguese habit. Quadrilles,
waltzes, polkas, and mazurkas are danced with great vigour and much
skill. The refreshments are muddy coffee and a few sweetmeats. Dancing
is kept up for hours, and all is conducted with much decorum and
propriety. A party of this kind meets about once a week, the principal
inhabitants taking it by turns, and all who please come in without much
ceremony.

It is astonishing how little these people have altered in three hundred
years, although in that time they have changed their language and lost
all knowledge of their own nationality. They are still in manners and
appearance almost pure Portuguese, very similar to those with whom I had
become acquainted on the banks of the Amazon. They live very poorly as
regards their house and furniture, but preserve a semi-European dress,
and have almost all full suits of black for Sundays. They are nominally
Protestants, but Sunday evening is their grand day for music and
dancing. The men are often good hunters; and two or three times a week,
deer or wild pigs are brought to the village, which, with fish and
fowls, enables them to live well. They are almost the only people in
the Archipelago who eat the great fruit-eating bats called by us "flying
foxes." These ugly creatures are considered a great delicacy, and are
much sought after. At about the beginning of the year they come in large
flocks to eat fruit, and congregate during the day on some small islands
in the bay, hanging by thousands on the trees, especially on dead ones.
They can then be easily caught or knocked down with sticks, and are
brought home by basketsfull. They require to be carefully prepared,
as the skin and fur has a rank end powerful foxy odour; but they are
generally cooked with abundance of spices and condiments, and are really
very good eating, something like hare. The Orang Sirani are good cooks,
having a much greater variety of savoury dishes than the Malays. Here,
they live chiefly on sago as bread, with a li