A nsiver to Mr. CrawfordCs letter. 146. 



.hserved or known is abstaining from swine's flesh, being 

 circumcised, and enjoying a plurality of women. They are 

 less bigotted and less attached to t!ie tenets of their religion 

 than the Malays ; of liquors and wines they are excessively 

 fond, and when procurable, indulge in it to excess... Most of 

 the chiefs at Sale speak the Malay, but very few can either read 

 or write it. The Hagis from Java are the only people that pre- 

 tend to any considerable proficiency in Malay literature. Many 

 of the Datees speak the Spanish language, and some of them 

 the Chinese fluently ; the former they have learnt from the 

 christian slaves, and the latter from the great numbers of that 

 nation settled all over the Sulo possessions. But the indigenous 

 language at all the islanders is the Biscayan, which is the pre- 

 valent tongue of all the Islands South and of the province at 

 Biscayesor Luconia. The few records private or public that 

 fell under our observations were also in the Biscayan character. 

 My Malay writer had formed an alphabet, numerical characters, 

 and an extensive vocabulary of the language, but which have 

 with all my memoranda relative to Sulo, been destroyed by 

 damp and the white ants, before I knew that Dictionnaries of 

 Jugala^ Bisaya, Pompanga, &c, were voluminous and a consi- 

 derable portion of the number of words they contain, similar 

 to those spoken in Sumatra. » (Pag. 25.) 



Manden Val. — « I have since my arrival in Java, &c. The 

 form of the house is of an oblong square, containing only one 

 room. In the centre, they place their chest containing their 

 valuables and on these they spread their mats for sleeping ; 

 this space is consequently hung round with curtains (a dind- 

 ing) of chintz with a canopy or calambo. The kitchen is placed 

 in the further part of the house. They have two flight ot 

 bamboo steps, or rather a bamhoo ladder leading up to them. 

 The only difference between the palace of the Sultan and that 

 of any other individual, is, that the former is larger and con- 

 siderably higher, a royal distinction here as well as in Siam. » 

 (Pag. 29.) 



