At Singapore. . 289 



regulations, are drawn by capital ponies ; they are Singapore 

 specialities, born and bred in Sumatra and in certain portions 

 of the Malay peninsula, and though diminutive they are 

 perfectly shaped, safe, swift trotters, and hardy. As to colour 

 they run a good deal to piebald ; and they are most kindly 

 treated by their owners. 



Along the Tanjong Paggar Road you continually meet 

 rude carts, heavily laden with merchandise gambler and 

 pepper, hides, or fancy woods from the interior, where the 

 irrepressible Chinaman is gardener, woodman and all else 

 that is remunerative. To the carts are yoked hump- 

 shouldered bulls, sleek-hided as a deer, mostly fawn-coloured, 

 and as docile as the lamb. Fan palms, bananas, cocoa nut 

 and betel palms, tree ferns, bamboos, rattans, tropical 

 creepers and flowers, and vistas of strange and beautiful trees 

 appear on either side of the well-kept road. Next you pass 

 through a native street, probably holding your nose until you 

 become acclimatized to the indescribable stenches of the 

 native quarters. There are " rows " on either side of the 

 thoroughfare, very different from the picturesque covered 

 ways of ancient Chester or the continental towns, but 

 affording shelter from the sun for the inhabitants, who have 

 a wonderful love of squatting on their hams outside their 

 small primitive places of business ; squatting in company ; 

 squatting in silence ; squatting morning, noon, and night. 



There are miles of streets in Singapore, but in every one 

 of them the natives shall be found perseveringly engaged in 

 this absorbing do-nothing occupation. Longfellow would be 

 charmed with the perfect way in which they have learned, if 

 not to labour, at least to wait. John Chinaman, of course, 

 is everywhere. The little bazaars with the hieroglyphs over 

 the door, the lanterns suspended from the ceiling inside, the 

 idol over the candle-lit shrine, and the curtained-off inner 



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