250 EAMBLES OF A NATUEALIST. [Oh. XY. 



artizan duties necessitated by a large community, and 

 other essential operations, of a nature which the more scru- 

 pulous KUngs would disdain to lend their hands to. Street 

 after-street is crowded with these active and energetic Celes- 

 tials, who here, as in China, have the spirit of centralisation 

 and co-operation. One street contains none but black- 

 smiths toiling over their forges — another resounds with the 

 saws and chips of a crowd of carpenters — a third with the 

 dull blows of the stone-masons' maUets, &c. Each devotes 

 itself to its own craft, and admits no interlopers, while all 

 the inhabitants are busily engaged in effecting one common 

 end, — and that is, to hoard up enough money to enable 

 them to cease work, and return to their native district ia 

 China, there to pass the remainder of their days in a 

 comfortable independence among their own people, and 

 especially amidst their own family. 



Besides these there are, in certain parts of the town, con- 

 siderable numbers of Bugis people from Celebes, &e., — ^tall 

 and strong, wild-looking fellows, wearing a pair of short 

 drawers and a rough cloth flung over the left shoulder like 

 a plaid. They belong chiefly to the prahus or crafts which 

 lie at the east side of the harbour, and may be generally 

 seen loiteriag about at this end of the town out of mere 

 curiosity, and strongly reminded me of the Lancashire 

 operatives wandering about Liverpool, open-mouthed, on 

 a holiday. Their vessels are* ugly-lookiag, two-masted craft, 

 with black and white longitudinal stripes, which trade with 

 Singapore from all the islands of the Archipelago. For- 

 merly there were many more of them, for while Singapore 

 was a free port, all the Dutch ports required dues and 

 levied imposts. The Dutch, however, learning wisdom, 

 though late, freed their ports; and since then they have 



