1868. | Reviews. 491 
Annals and Magazine of Natural History. This may account 
for the disconnected character of the work, successive chapters of 
which, in some cases, relate to distant countries, without even a 
reference to the intervening journey or voyage. 
A large portion of the volume is occupied by descriptions of the 
manners and customs of the inhabitants of various countries visited 
by the author ; and in all this there is no room for disappointment. 
Life in the far East is depicted with a graphic ability that makes 
familiar races more familiar, and renders, to certain tribes hitherto 
almost unknown, services resembling those of the photographer ; 
we feel that we should recognize them if we were to fall in with 
them. An instance of the former kind occurs in the description of 
Singapore. 
“ Here we may see tropical vegetation in all its beauty and per- 
fection ; and here too we may meet representatives of various races, 
from the east and from the west, attracted by the same commercial 
magnet—HKuropeans and Asiatics all alike bringing with them their 
manners and customs, their religions, their costumes, unchanged— 
a picturesque combination, such as scarcely any other place can 
afford.* The foreign (Eastern) residents in Singapore mainly con- 
sist of two rival races, widely different in dress, habits, and religion, 
viz. Klings, from the Coromandel Coast of India, and Chinese.”+ 
The Klings are described as being “intensely black, not the shining 
black of a negro, but a dull, sooty colour, from which their eyes 
gleam out with great expression, half savage, half intelligent.” ‘The 
Kling women are dark beauties, finely made, and dressed in flowing 
robes, which conceal the whole figure down to the feet, but leave 
the arms bare to the shoulder. Their dress sits on them gracefully, 
and their ornaments give them an air of barbaric splendour. Arm- 
lets of gold are worn above the elbow, and bracelets of gold upon 
their arms; golden rings encircle their ankles, and several finger- 
rings glitter on their hands; heavy ear-rings hang pendant from 
their ears, and one side of the nostril is pierced to give passage to 
a gold nose-ring, more or less chased in front. These ornaments 
are not unfrequently worn by one woman, and it appears to be a 
common practice to invest their money in these trinkets, so that a 
Kling woman carries a small fortune upon her person.” { 
In striking contrast with these appear the small-footed Chinese 
ladies of Formosa. “ Their dresses, consisting of a wide-sleeved 
tunic, cut in the formal style universal among Chinese ladies, were 
of the brightest scarlet, blue, or orange, embroidered with black, 
which contrasted well with the colour; and their full trousers were 
of some other equally strong material. In their hair, dressed in 
the elaborate Chinese teapot fashion, they wore artificial flowers 
* P, 249. + P. 245. t P. 246, 
