3%6 cook's first voyage 



DEC. 



great part of the East Indies. A dictionary of Ma- 

 lay and English was published in London by Thomas 

 Bowrey, in the year 1701. 



Their women wear as much hair as can grow upon 

 the head, and to increase the quantity, they use oils, 

 and other preparations of various kinds. Of this 

 ornament Nature has been very liberal ; it is uni- 

 versally black, and is formed into a kind of circular 

 wreath upon the top of the head, where it is fastened 

 with a bodkin, in a taste which we thought inex- 

 pressibly elegant; the wreath of hair is surrounded 

 by another of flowers, in which the Arabian jessa- 

 mine is beautifully intermixed with the golden 

 stars of the Bonger Tanjong. 



Both sexes constantly bathe themselves in the 

 river at least once a day, a practice which, in this 

 hot country, is equally necessary both to personal 

 delicacy and health. The teeth of these people also, 

 whatever they may suffer in their colour by chewing 

 betel, are an object of great attention : the ends of 

 them, both in the upper and under jaw, are rubbed 

 with a kind of whetstone, by a very troublesome and 

 painful operation, till they are perfectly even and 

 flat, so that they cannot lose less than half a line 

 in their length. A deep groove is then made across 

 the teeth of the upper jaw, parallel with the gums, 

 and in the middle between them and the extremitv 

 of the teeth ; the depth of this groove is at least 

 equal to one-fourth of the thickness of the teeth, 

 so that it penetrates far beyond what is called the 

 enamel, the least injury to which, according to the 

 dentists of Europe, is fatal ; yet among these people, 

 where the practice of thus wounding the enamel is 

 universal, we never saw a rotten tooth ; nor is the 

 blackness a stain, but a covering, which may be 

 washed off at pleasure, and the teeth then appear 

 as white as ivory, which however is not an excel- 

 lence in the estimation of the belles and beaus of 

 these nations. 



