SINGAPORE. 293 



house and cemetery on a hill-side, beyond which we have for a 

 mile, on oui- i-ight hand, a soHd row of Chinese shops and dwell- 

 ings, and on the other side of the road, a creek flowing mud and 

 slime instead of water. Talk of malaria ! It could be cut in that 

 creek, in blocks a foot square, like ice in the Hudson. And the 

 worst of it is that creek stinks — pardon, I mean sticks — by us Tin- 

 tQ we are well into the city itself. 



How odd the Chinese shops look with their huge red lanterns, 

 wonderful signs, and flaming inscriptions in black on red paper 

 pasted on the door-posts, lintels, and window-casings. How fat and 

 sleek and hearty-looking are all the Chinese men and women, and 

 how plump and saucy-looking are all their children. I am sure the 

 Chinese are more fleshy, man for man, than any other people in 

 the world. 



Rattling on we go. Here are Chinamen smoking big stems of 

 bamboo, lai'ge enough for hitching-posts ; here is one having his 

 pig-tail combed and his head shaved as he sits smoking unconcern- 

 edly on a bench. We pass four Chinamen with a huge and clumsy 

 coffin upon a cart in which there will soon be a fifth, please heaven. 

 Here is a Malay woman combing her hair in a doorway, and here, 

 ah ! old enemies ! Here are three shops kept by Tamils, or Klings, 

 as they call them here. 



How odd everything looks. The houses are all two stories 

 high, with part of the lower story cut out to give a dry passage 

 way, and the overhanging upper portion supported by huge square 

 pillars of masonry. 



Aha ! The sailors' quarter, it would seem, if we may judge by 

 the tavern signs. One announces, quite regardless of space, 



THEilAXONTHELOOKOUT, 

 and displays the portly figure of a Jack tai- holding a small KJrupp 

 cannon up to his eye, while he squints hombly into the muzzle. 

 Another sign in base imitation of the foiTaer proclaims, 



THEMAXATTHEWHEEL ; 



and another, the best painted of them all, sets forth, in beautiful 

 letters but homicidal orthography, 



THE SILVER ANKER. 



Still another proclaims 



THE ORIGINAL MADRAS BOB, 

 which is equivalent to the assertion that there are spurious 

 ]Madras Bobs about, and " all others are base imitations, unless 



