110 FEMALE WEAVERS. 



an ebon tinge, and, I should judge, ruined them ; as 

 few, even of the youngest of those who have arrived 

 at maturity, have anything but stumps of teeth. They 

 also use the tobacco which grows on the island, 

 known to seamen as " shag tobacco." It has little 

 taste, and when smoked, exhales an unpleasant odor ; 

 grows in threads and looks like saffron. 



Here, as in all barbaric countries, the women are 

 obliged to do the principal part of the work, and 

 they ma}' be seen walking in Indian file from the 

 rice fields to the granary, each carrying on her head 

 a large basket ; the whole being under the guidance 

 of a strapping Malay, who, from appearance, is 

 anything but an easy taskmaster. We saw but very 

 little of the unmarried females, except at a distance ; 

 they were, for the most part, engaged in weaving a 

 cloth of alternate gaudy colors. On our approach 

 the weavers would drop their work and run like 

 deer. We examined their looms, and one who, at 

 home, had been a w^eaver, said that they were on the 

 same principle as our hand-looms. The reason 

 ascribed for the timidity of the females was, that 

 some years ago a Spanish vessel of war visited the 

 town, and the crew, on getting ashore, indulging in 

 anise until drunk, indiscriminately violated and 

 otherwise maltreated the women. We could occa- 

 sionally detect them peeping out, to have a look at 

 us, from some secure retreat. ISTo liberties could be 

 taken, for the first two days, with any of them, when 

 an acute fellow, moved by a spirit, not unlike Yankee 

 speculation, procured prostitutes from an adjacent 

 town ; but he overshot his mark, as the liberty was 

 then stopped, and those ashore on duty were not pro- 



