CHARACTERS. 
prevails at one of the most frequent. 
etl of its sea-port towns. ‘The sin- 
gular indulgence, granted by the 
laws of Solon, of permitting young 
women to dispose of personal fa- 
yours, for the purpose of enabling 
them to procure articles of the first 
necessity for themselves or their fa- 
milies, is sanctioned by the Cochin- 
chinese without any limitation as to 
age, condition, or object. Neither 
the husband nor the father seem to 
have any scruples in abandoning 
the wife or the daughter to her 
gallant. 
There was little prepossessing in 
the general appearance and charac- 
ter of the Cochinchinese. ‘The wo- 
men had but slender pretensions to 
beauty ; yet the want of personal 
charms was in some degree compen- 
sated by a lively and cheerful tem- 
per, totally unlike the dull, the 
morose, and secluded Chinese. An 
expressive countenance, being as 
much the result of education and 
sentiment as a delicate set of fea- 
tures and a fine complexion are of 
health, ease, exemption from drud- 
gery and exposure to the vicissitudes 
of the weather, eould hardly be ex- 
pected in Cochinchina. In point of 
fact, both sexes are coarse featured, 
and their colour nearly as deep as 
that of the Malay; and, like these 
people, the universal custom of 
chewing areca and betel, by redden- 
ing the lips and blackening the 
teeth, gives them an appearance still 
more unseemly than nature intend- 
ed. The dress of the women was 
by no means fascinating. A loose 
cotton frock, of a brown or blue 
colour, reaching down to the middle 
of the thigh, and a pair of black 
nankin trowsers made very wide, 
constitute in general their common 
eloathing. With the use of steck- 
873 
ings and shoes they are wholly un- 
acquainted ; but the upper ranks 
wear a kind of sandals or loose slip- 
pers. Asaholiday dress, on parti- 
cnlar occasions, alady puts on three 
or four frocks at once, of different 
colours and lengths; the shortest 
being uppermost. Their long black 
hair is sometimes twisted into a knot 
and fixed on the crown of the head, 
and sometimes hangs in flowing 
tresses down the back, reaching fre- 
quently to the very ground. Short 
hair is not only considered as a 
mark of vulgarity, but an indication _ 
of degeneracy. The dress of the 
men has little, if any thing, to 
distinguish it from that of the other 
sex, being chiefly confined to a 
jacket and a pair of trowsers. Some 
wear handkerchiefs tied round the 
head in the shape ef a turban; 
others have hats or caps of various 
forms and materials, but most of 
them calculated for protecting the 
face against the rays of the sun; 
for which purpose they also 
make use of umbrellas of strong 
China paper, or skreens of the 
leaves of the borassus or fan-palm@ 
and other. kinds of the palm-tribe; 
or fans made of feathers. Con- 
sonant with the appearance of their 
mean and scanty cloathing, as fre- 
quently thrown loosely oyer their 
shoulders as fitted to the body, were 
their lowly cabins of bamboo. In 
short, nothing met the eye that 
could impress the mind of a stranger 
with high notions of the happy con- 
dition of this people. 
fee ee 
On the State of the Arts, $c. From 
the same. 
That particular branch of the arts 
in which the Cochinchinese may be 
3K 4 said 
