A SCIENTIFIC MISSION TO CAMBODIA. 



3*5 



it furnishes a sufficient bed, and is easily packed with the baggage. 

 The necessity of making frequent removals has also inspired the Cam- 

 bodian mattress. The mat is not thick, and furnishes a comfortable 

 relief ; but the Cambodian sybarites have sought for something bet- 

 ter, and found it. They have invented a mattress as soft as our own 

 and much more convenient for journeys ; it can be folded up into so 

 compact a space as to take up very little room, and it is made in 

 such a way that, however thick it may be, it can always be done up so 

 exactly that every part shall be sure to fit into the smallest possible 

 space. These luxurious bed-clothes are, of course, only found among 

 the better-off Cambodians. The poorer ones have to content them- 

 selves with a common mat, or a board, or the ground itself. 



J "I ' 



King of Cambodia. 



The spittoon is in universal use. It varies in size and material, 

 but not in shape. It is swelled out at the base, narrowly contracted 

 above, and flares out into a funnel at the top — the whole giving it a 

 shape well adapted to its use. The Cambodian is a constant betel- 

 chewer ; he has to be spitting all the time, and is under the necessity 

 of having a dish always at hand to receive the blood-red saliva that 

 escapes from his lips. The poor use an earthen spittoon. The rich 

 man uses porcelain, and King Norodom has a spittoon of massive gold, 

 carved and dressed with srreat taste. 



