326 IMPUTED CHARACTER 



In south Borneo, the bedang of the women is 

 quite narrow, and so tight at the lower ends, that in 

 walking, they find great difficulty and inconvenience 

 result from the practice, which has, perhaps, for its 

 intention, the greater preservation of decency, but, as 

 has been observed by Mr. Marsden, in speaking of 

 the longer clothes of the coast women of Sumatra, 

 their greater attention to appearances does not always 

 portend really more genuine virtue and modesty, and if 

 the statements I have heard from gentlemen who have 

 resided in that country be correct, this opinion is 

 strikingly illustrated ; for a German missionary, who 

 resided for some time among them, attributes to them 

 the most offensive vices and loathsome crimes, for the 

 gratification of which, public prostitution of females, 

 and worse institutions, have gained a place among 

 them; but I cannot imagine these observations to be 

 correct, and think that such revolting practices as have 

 been thus attributed to them, may have originated in 

 some misunderstanding between the Missionary and his 

 informants, more particularly as the vices attributed to 

 them are those which have never been found in such a 

 state of society, and the public practice of them is 

 against all that we know of the principles of human 

 nature ; such nations as the Chinese, who are addicted 

 to such vile habits, being the most strenuous in denying 

 their existence. 



In the south of Borneo, they are said to be carried 

 on publicly, the wretched beings who gratify the public 

 vices, inviting their associates by the sound of gongs and 



