CHAP, xxvni.] IN A NATIVE PRAU. 169 



actions, and there is scarcely any of that noise and excite- 

 ment which might be expected. In fine weather the 

 greater part of them are quietly enjoying themselves — 

 some are sleeping under the shadow of the sails ; others, in 

 little groups of three or four, are talking or chewing betel ; 

 one is making a new handle to his chopping-knife, another 

 is stitching away at a new pair of trousers or a shirt, and 

 all are as quiet and well-conducted as on board the best- 

 ordered English merchantman. Two or three take it by 

 turns to watch in the bows and see after the braces and 

 halyards of the great sails ; the two steersmen are below 

 in the steerage ; our captain, or the juragan, gives the 

 course, guided partly by the compass and partly by the 

 direction of the wind, and a watch of two or three on the 

 poop look after the trimaiing of the sails and call out th<^ 

 hours by the water-clock. This is a very ingenious con- 

 trivance, which measures tdme well in both rough weather 

 and fine. It is simply a bucket half filled with water, in 

 which floats the half of a well-scraped cocoa-nut shell. 

 In the bottom of this shell is a very small hole, so that 

 when placed to float in the bucket a fine thread of water 

 squirts up into it. This gradually fills the shell, and the 

 size of the hole is so adjusted to the capacity of the vessel 

 that, exactly at the end of an hour, plump it goes to the 

 bottom. The watch then cries out the number of hours 

 from sunrise, and sets the shell afloat again empty. This 



