500 Mr. S. Davis on the Religious and Social 



The men on the contrary, at least those of the better sort, are much more 

 polished in tiieir manners, and intelligent in their conversation, than might 

 be expected from their little intercourse with other nations. They seem to 

 have strength of intellect, and a freedom of using it, that might make a 

 rapid progress in useful knowledge, were it introduced among them. But 

 of scientific information they are certainly very destitute, although possessed 

 of voluminous treatises in print, which are carefully laid up in some of 

 the chapels as in a library. These books chiefly relate to aflfairs of religion ; 

 they are also said to contain a history of the country, and a code of laws, 

 and the Rajah presented one to Mr. Saunders, which he said comprehends 

 the whole science of medicine : they are printed in a large character on 

 long slips of paper, and the leaves, which are parted when read, are at other 

 times bound up between two flat pieces of board, cut to their size, and orna- 

 mented according to the value of that they contain.* In surgery they may, 

 perhaps, have some little skill, and the Rajah himself seems perfectly versed 

 in the Boutan practice of physic. Mr. Saunders said he was surprised to 

 see a difficult case of a fractured skull treated by one of their practitioners 

 with great propriety. The same operator gave a very satisfactory account 

 of the use he made of mercury in venereal disorders. In architecture, 

 I think, they make the best figure : there is a boldness in the design 

 of many of their castles when they are not considered in tiie character of 

 military buildings ; and, with a little more attention to uniformity in the 

 disposal of windows and doors, and such as, perhaps, t/tei/ think unessential 

 points, these might without partiality be thought perfect in their kind. The 

 projection of the roof is extremely well proportioned to the extraordinary 

 thickness and slope of the walls, and the large projecting balconies are 

 much better adapted than windows to fabrics of so great an area and height. 

 The apartments are lofty and of a good size, and the method of getting 

 into them by ladders, instead of stairs, seems to me the only peculiarity that 

 admits of improvement: but the inconvenience is less felt here, where 

 men only are to mount them, and they take up less room where level 

 ground is so scarce and valuable. 



priated to us, and slie differed in no respect of dress or appearance from the other women 

 of the country. 



* This is precisely the manner in which the Bud'h priests of China bind up their treatises 

 and prayers, which often open out Hke a folding screen. J.F.D. 



