52 APPEARANCE OF THE PEOPLE. 



but of a grave and sombre rather than cheerful ex- 

 pression. The children are much handsomer than 

 the adults, and the men more frequently good-look- 

 ing than the women. The habit of filing down the 

 front enamel of the teeth and blackening them, and 

 that of chewing seri, disfigures the adult population 

 in a great degree, as does also the serious coun- 

 tenance they commonly preserve, their faces being 

 greatly improved by a smile. 



It appeared to me that their Dutch masters are 

 in the habit of treating the natives of all ranks with 

 considerable haughtiness and reserve, and it was 

 always some time before we could induce them to 

 relax their gravity in our presence. This we ge- 

 nerally endeavoured to do by all the jokes and 

 familiarity our ignorance of the language enabled 

 us to perpetrate, and it was often surprising how 

 they improved on a little acquaintance. In fact, 

 their sole study seemed how to please us by any 

 means in their power. 



November 16. — We remained quietly at Lama- 

 jang to-day. The morning was most lovely, all the 

 mountains being clear and sharply-defined, without 

 a cloud in the sky. Semiru was particularly fine as 

 he puffed forth from his summit huge volumes of 

 white smoke, looking like steam. This formed 

 occasionally a great canopy over the cone, and then 

 portions of it successively curled off till all dis- 

 appeared. Between two and three o'clock in the 

 afternoon, however, the mountains had gradually 



