314 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



It probably is kept as a delicacy for tbe palates of tlie higher classes, who delight in sweet- 

 meats and other confections of sugar, or sent as an exi^ort or tribute to Japan. In spite of an 

 abundant 2)roduct, sugar is evidently a scarce article among the common people, for one of the 

 interpreters begged some from the Americans, as if he esteemed it a rare luxury. The refuse 

 cane, after being pressed, (baggass, as we call it,) is carefully dried and used as fuel. The Lew 

 Chewans have also mills for the grinding of grain. These are made of excellent millstones, 

 and are worked by hand. The flour, however, remains unbolted, but makes a good and sweet 

 bread. The granaries are marked objects in every village throughout the island. They are 

 generally constructed of either woven cane or wood, and in a square form, increasing in width 

 from their base, which is supported upon posts placed upon stones, to their tops, which is covered 

 with a rice straw thatch. They have the advantage of being well ventilated and protected from 

 vermin, of which, especially of rats, there is a great abundance. These granaries often contain 

 as much as five hundred bushels, and as they are grouped together in numbers, amounting some- 

 times to nearly a score, they are supposed to be the property of the government.* 



The population of Great Lew Chew must amount to between one hundred and fifty and two 

 hundred thousand, since there are two large cities, those of Kapha and Shui, and some thirty- 

 six towns beside, with an average of about six thousand people each. The island seems to be 

 peopled by two distinct races, the Japanese and the Lew Chewan, properly so called. They both 

 have originally sprung, however, from the same stock. It has been supposed by some that the 

 Lew Chewan peojDle are chiefly allied to the Tagallas, a race which is spread over the Phillipine, 

 Marian, and other Pacific islands, and which originally sprang from the Malays. There is, 

 however, no afiinity between the Lew Chew, Malay, and Tagalla languages, nor are the relations 

 of their physical peculiarities such as to favor the opinion of a common origin. From the dis- 

 covery, during the exploration of the island, of some remains of ancient Hindoo worship, it was 

 surmised that the Lew Chewans might possibly have been originally a colony from southern 

 Asia. Whether these remains are the relics of a people living in Lew Chew previous to the 

 present races, or only the vestiges of a religion once held by one of the present existing races, 

 but now supplanted by the wide-spreading Buddhism, it is not easy to decide. Dr. Fahs, how- 

 ever, (to whom, together with his associate. Dr. Green, we are indebted for the principal facts 

 of this chapter,) inclines to the belief that the Hindoo idolatry was introduced directly by means 

 of priests coming from India as missionaries, or through the medium of the commercial inter- 

 coiirse which has, in all ages, existed between eastern nations. 



The Japanese and the Lew Chewans difier slightly from each other, the latter being more 

 effeminate and somewhat less intelligent, but this may be owing to their simple, retired life, 

 upon a remote island, where their wants are few, and nature is generous. They have, however, 

 such strong resemblances that it is almost impossible to resist the conviction of their sameness 

 of origin. They have both the same height, and very similar features. In both, the head is 

 oval, approaching in form that of the European, the frontal bones rounded, and the forehead 

 high, the face oval, and the general expression mild and amiable, the eyes large and animated, 

 though more so in the Japanese than in the Lew Chewans, the irides in both are dark brown or 

 black, the lashes long, and the eyebrows rather heavy and arched. 



The long angular form of the internal canthus of the eye is seldom seen, either in the Japanese 



» A detailed and highly interesting report on Lew Chew agriculture, prepared by the fleet surgeon, Dr. Green, will be found 

 in Appendix, volume'l. 



