Ch. XV.] KLINGS. 245 



an uncivilised spot ! Wishing to understand the cause of 

 this phenomenon, I walked into the chamber, where I found 

 a respectable Chinese lad of 15 or 16, who had been 

 educated at the High school of Singapore, and spoke English 

 very well, and was now teaching his little brother, 7 or 

 8 years old, the mysteries of the barbarian language. 



Owing to their proximity to the water, the children are 

 veritably amphibious in their habits. They hoUow out logs 

 of absurdly small dimensions, which do duty as canoes, and 

 these they propel either with an impromptu paddle, or even 

 with their hands ; and they will dive like ducks, regaining 

 their frail craft with astonishing skill. Such canoes often 

 come up and surround the ships in New Harbour, their 

 occupants diving for small coins thrown into the water, 

 which they never fail to secure. 



The foreign (Eastern) residents in Singapore mainly con- 

 sist of two rival races, widely different in dress, habits, and 

 religion — viz., KKngs, from the Coromandel coast of India; 

 and Chinese. I say rival races, because they are both active 

 and industrious, and compete with one another in the chief 

 industrial occupations by which a livelihood can be obtained. 

 The. KHngs are, indeed, the only people who can contest the 

 field with the Chinese, and they do so notwithstanding 

 many disadvantages. They are intensely black — not the 

 shining black of a negro, but a dull sooty colour, from 

 which their eyes gleam out with great expression, half 

 savage, half intelligent. They are remarkably weU-buUt 

 men, tall, slender, clean-limbed, and graceful, and their 

 faces are often positively handsome ; the features small, and 

 finely chiselled ; nose aquiline ; mouth small, and teeth 

 white ; a highly intelligent cast of countenance, which, trans- 

 lated into a white skin, would be considered elegant and 



