274 Voyage of the Novara. 



to fulfil their sentences in the prisons of Batavia, the stranger 

 encounters in these latter numerous peculiar types of natives 

 from the various districts of Java and the adjoining islands, 

 and this rare opportunity was made use of by myself and Dr. 

 Schwarz to obtain some corporeal measurements of individuals 

 presenting the characteristics of their respective races, as had 

 already been done in the barracks. 



Dr. Toussaint presented the Expedition with several patho- 

 logical preparations, as also with one curiosity rather of his- 

 torical than scientific interest, namely, the skull of a man, 

 found a few years before in the maw of a shark which had 

 been picked up dead at sea ! 



A very singular impression was left on us by a visit we 

 paid to " Meester Cornelis," a sort of bazaar in the outskirts 

 of Batavia, where a singular phase of life may be seen nightly 

 in full activity. On a wide open square are a large number of 

 booths, in which are sold all sorts of eatables and drinkables, 

 while there is at the same time no lack of dancing-girls, Java- 

 nese musicians, opium-dens, gambling "hells," and other 

 breeding-places of human depravity. The majority of its 

 frequenters are Chinese, who spend here in the most extrava- 

 gant manner what they have earned during the day. They 

 especially affect the filthy little closets, where for a couple of 

 doits (a halfpenny English) they can lie stretched out in a 

 pitiable state of stupefaction, the result of opium smoking, but 

 are likewise by no means backward in patronizing the gam- 

 bling booths. A group of these half-naked children of the 



