4o6 DESCRIPTION OF BATAVIA CHAP, xvn 



and in selling fruit and flowers; all the betel and areca, 

 called here siri and pinang, of which an immense quantity is 

 chewed by Portuguese, Chinese, Slams, slaves, and freemen, 

 is grown by them. The lime that they use here is, however, 

 slaked, by which means their teeth are not eaten up in the 

 same manner as those of the people of Savu who use it 

 unslaked. They mix it also with a substance called gambir, 

 which is brought from the continent of India, and the better 

 sort of women use with their chew many sorts of perfumes, 

 as cardamoms, etc., to give the breath an agreeable smell. 

 Many also get a livelihood by fishing and carrying goods 

 upon the water, etc. Some, however, there are who are very 

 rich and live splendidly in their own way, which consists 

 almost entirely in possessing a number of slaves. 



In the article of food no people can be more abstemious 

 than they are. Boiled rice is of rich, as well as of poor, the 

 principal part of their subsistence : this with a small pro- 

 portion of fish, buffalo or fowl, and sometimes dried fish and 

 dry shrimps, brought here from China, is their chief food. 

 Everything, however, must be highly seasoned with cayenne 

 pepper. They have also many pastry dishes made of rice 

 flour and other things I am totally ignorant of, which are 

 very pleasant : fruit also they eat much of, especially 

 plantains. 



Their feasts are plentiful, and in their way magnificent, 

 though they consist more of show than meat : artificial 

 flowers, etc., are in profusion, and meat plentiful, though 

 there is no great variety of dishes. Their religion of Ma- 

 hometanism denies them the use of strong liquors : nor do I 

 believe that they trespass much in that way, having always 

 tobacco, betel, and opium wherewith to intoxicate themselves. 

 Their weddings are carried on with vast form and show : 

 the families concerned borrowing as many gold and silver 

 ornaments as possible to adorn the bride and bridegroom, so 

 that their dresses are always costly. The feasts and cere- 

 monies relating to them last in rich men's families a fort- 

 night or more ; during all which time the man, though married 

 on the first day, is by the women kept from his wife. 



