EASTERN MODE OF COOKING. 31 



The L, when tliere is one, usually has only a low wall 

 around it, and a roof resting on pillars. It is there- 

 fore open on three sides to the air, unless shutters are 

 placed between the pillars. This is usually the din- 

 ing-room. Back of the house is a square, open area, 

 enclosed on the remaining three sides by a row of 

 low, shed-roofed houses. Here are extra bedrooms, 

 servants' quarters, cook-rooms, bath-rooms, and sta- 

 bles. Within this area is usually a well, surrounded 

 with shade-trees. The water from this well is poured 

 into a thick urn-shaped vessel of coral rock, and 

 slowly filters through into an earthen pot beneath ; 

 it is then cooled with ice from our own New-Eno*- 



o 



land ponds. Thus the cold of our temperate zone is 

 made to allay the heat of the tropics. Several ship- 

 loads of ice come from Boston to this port every 

 year. At Surabaya and Singapore large quantities 

 are manufactured, but it is as soft as ice in ice-cream. 

 When one is accustomed to drinking ice-water, there 

 is no danger of any ill effect ; but, on returning from 

 the eastern part of the archipelago where they never 

 have ice, to Surabaya, I suffered severely for a time, 

 and, as I believe, from no other cause. In the fre- 

 quent cases of fever in the East it is a luxury, and 

 indeed a medicine, which can only be appreciated 

 by one who has himself endured that indescribable 

 burning. 



The cook-room, as already noticed, is some dis- 

 tance from the dining-room, l)ut this inconvenience is 

 of little importance in those hot lands. The Malays 

 are the only cooks, and I do not think that cooking 

 as an art is earned to the highest perfection in that 



