Page:"Round the world." - Letters from Japan, China, India, and Egypt (IA roundworldletter00fogg 0).pdf/156

 term “running » mucs” had ite origin, and it is not sn unusual occutrence. After a Wative has gambled away his money, wife and children, and his own life been staked sud loat, instead of blowing out his brains like « sensible Christian, he draws his creese and dashes ihrough the village, cry- ing “(A.mok! Amok!” striking at every- one be tweets. The whole population turns out in purgult, and hunts him down like a wild besst through thicket and junzle, a lJarge reward being given to whoever slays the despersdg.

The language of the Maylays iv the Ital- jan of the Mast, futl of soft, liquid sounds, vety musicsl and sweet and easy to be learned by a foreigner.

Notwithsta.ding the cruel and blood- thirsty charactor of the men, the women are gaid ta be kind aud gentle. They have soft, lustrous eyes, with drooping Jashes, and mild, pleasing countensnees, indicative of affectionate dispositions. They are neat and tasty in dress, and in deportment ate modest and unassuming. Such a contrast between the eexes seems an anomaly. In viding outside the city I have frequently met the native women wearing a curious hend-gaar mada of bamboo, two feet or more in diameter, and algped like a chease. It ig very light, and a perfect protection from the tun,

The population of Singspore is about 120,- 800, of whom more than half are Catnese. Their energy and enterprise is more than = watch for the native Malays and they con- trol the business of the place, Every steamer and j:nk brings a crowd of these emigrants from the Chinese ports, and ijn a few years by industry and economy they accumulate what ia to them a fortune, and return to China, rica men. The climate here is said to be the most agreeable 1m the world, and isaperpetuelsummer. Though but seventy miles north of the equator the mercury rarely rises above ninety degrees, with a variation of only about ten degrees between summer and winter. No long summer days nor long winter nights, for the sun rises all the year round within a few minutes of six c’clock, The abundance and variety of frviteis unsurpassed in the world, and nature seems to hays bestowed her choicest gifta witha lavish hand. The typhoon of the Chinese seas and the cy- clones of the Indian ocean are alike un- known.