PUBLIC MARKET OF BRUNI. 153 



and interestingly novel appearance, being held upon the 

 water by the women, who arrive every morning from 

 the country with fruit, vegetables, and other articles 

 for sale ; the vendors are generally two or three in 

 each boat, every one of them provided with a large 

 hat made of palm-leaves, and of an umbrella shape, 

 which serves to protect the whole person from either 

 the sun or rain. They each have also a paddle, with 

 which they manage their little canoes which are almost 

 level with the water's edge with the greatest dex- 

 terity. Early in the morning the market boats 

 assemble ; first about the middle of the town ; but 

 floating up quietly with the sluggish tide, or down, if the 

 water be ebbing ; during the day, it is seen moving 

 slowly in and out of the different streets with an 

 occasional purchaser, who is making a bargain with a 

 market woman separated from the rest, in the eager- 

 ness of trade having forgotten to direct her little boat 

 in the same course as the others, but, the purchase 

 completed, she soon joins the remainder, and is lost in 

 the crowd. This fleet of market boats numbers gene- 

 rally from 150 to 200, and the whole business trans- 

 acted in them is conducted by women. It has 

 generally entirely dispersed by noon. 



Houses built of stone are never seen in Borneo, but 

 traces of images arid Hindu sculpture, hereafter to be de- 

 scribed, prove that during the prevalence of the Hindu- 

 Javan power in the island, stone-work was known, though 

 perhaps never practised by the natives of the country, the 

 few images to be found having, perhaps, been brought 



