Tin-Works— Birds. 39 



numbers, and persons. En vai serves for " I go," " I went," 

 or " I will go." Adjectives, too, have been deprived of tlieir 

 feminine and plural terminations, so that the language is re- 

 duced to a marvellous simplicity, and, with the admixture 

 of a few Malay words, becomes rather puzzling to one who 

 has heard only the pure Lusitanian. 



In costume these several peo^jles are as varied as in their 

 speech. The English preserve the tight-fitting coat, waist- 

 coat, and trowsers, and the abominable hat and cravat ; the 

 Portuguese patronize a light jacket, or, more frequently, 

 shirt and trowsers only ; the Malays wear their national 

 jacket and sarong (a kind of kilt), with loose drawers ; while 

 the Chinese never depart in the least from their national 

 dress, which, indeed, it is impossible to improve for a tropical 

 climate, whether as regards comfort or appearance. The 

 loosely-hanging trowsers, and neat white half-shirt, half-jack- 

 et, are exactly what a dress should be in this low latitude. 



I engaged two Portuguese to accompany me into the in- 

 terior; one as a cook, the other to shoot and skin birds, 

 which is quite a trade in Malacca. I first staid a fortnight 

 at a village called Gading, where I was accommodated in 

 the house of some Chinese converts, to whom I was recom- 

 mended by the Jesuit missionaries. The house was a mere 

 shed, but it was kept clean, and I made myself sufticiently 

 comfortable. My hosts were forming a pejDper and gambir 

 plantation, and in the immediate neighborhood were exten- 

 sive tin-washings, employing over a thousand Chinese. The 

 tin is obtained in the form of black grains from beds of 

 quartzose sand, and is melted into ingots in rude clay fur- 

 naces. The soil seemed poor, and the forest was very dense 

 with undergrowth, and not at all productive of insects ; but, 

 on the other hand, birds were abundant, and I was at once 

 introduced to the rich ornithological treasures of the Malayan 

 region. 



The very first time I fired my gun I brought down one of 

 the most cuiious and beautiful of the Malacca birds, the 

 blue-billed gaper (Cymbirhynchus macrorhynchus), called by 

 the Malays the " rain-bird." It is about the size of a starling, 

 black and rich claret color, with white shoulder-stripes, and 

 a very large and broad bill of the most pure cobalt-blue 



