1843.] RELIGIOUS SERVICES. 81 



thatched roof. The sides, as well as internal divisions, 

 are of moveable sliding pannels, which can be opened 

 at pleasure ; and the floors are covered with neat mats, 

 of prescribed dimensions, formed of rice straw, generally 

 of three inches in depth, each mat being intended to 

 serve as a bed. Cleanliness was predominant throughout, 

 and they invariably put off their shoes on entering their 

 dwelling, to prevent anything being soiled. It was evi- 

 dent that amongst the better classes, or in the houses 

 devoted to our occupation, very great attention was be- 

 stowed upon their domestic comforts ; in each of these 

 we noticed, in the principal room, a species of family 

 altar surmounted by the customary board, containing a 

 representation of some favourite, but, to us, incompre- 

 hensible deity, as well as choice moral maxims ; nothing, 

 however, was to be seen that could lay claim to the desig- 

 nation of furniture. 



Their Temples, or Groves for Worship, are generally 

 situated in some thickly planted wood near the sea- 

 shore; no images were observed; a few tablets, with 

 some moral maxims and the names of their favourite 

 deities inscribed, and some jars, containing flowers or 

 green leaves, formed the extent of their religious service. 

 The place was held sacred, neatly swept, and had in- 

 variably a symbolic figure, approximating to one of the 

 Chinese characters, as a gateway; on one occasion, it 

 appeared at the head of one of the tablets. 



Regarding their mode of sepulture, they sometimes 

 bury their dead in caverns hewn out of the sides of the 

 rocks, in natural caves or holes near the sea, the apertures 

 being carefully closed, in wooden coffins ; and, not un- 



