CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MALAYS. 33 



I could be a traveller and never toiicli either. It is 

 generally supposed, in Euroj)e and America, tliat 

 housekeej^ers here, in the East, have little care or 

 vexation, where every family employs so many ser- 

 vants ; but, on the contrary, their troubles seem to 

 multiply in direct ratio to the number of servants 

 employed. No servant there will do more than one 

 thing. If engaged as a nurse, it is only to care for 

 one child ; if as a groom, it is only to care for one 

 horse, or, at most, one span of horses ; and as all 

 these Malays are bent on doing every thing in the 

 easiest way, it is almost as much trouble to watch 

 them as to do their work. 



The total population of the Residency of Ba- 

 tavia is 517,762. Of these, 5,576 are Europeans; 

 47,570 Chinese; 463,591 native; 684 Arabs; and 

 341 of other Eastern nations. 



All the natives are remarkably short in stature, 

 the male sex averaging not more than five feet three 

 inches in heiorht, or four inches less than that of Euro- 

 peans. The face is somewhat lozenge-shaped, the cheek- 

 bones high and prominent, the mouth wide, and the 

 nose short — not flat as in the negroes, or prominent 

 as in Europeans. They are generally of a mild dis- 

 position, except the wild tribes in the mountainous 

 parts of Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, Timor, Ceram, and 

 a few other large islands. The coast people are 

 invariably hospitable and trustworthy. They are 

 usually quiet, and extremely indolent. They all 

 have an insatiable passion for gambling, which no 

 restrictive or prohibitory laws can eradicate. 



They are nominally Mohammedans, but have 

 3 



