Proceedings of Learned Societies. 465 



wood soaked in honey. Living at a distance from the sea-coast, salt 

 can only be obtained by them, through the medium of barter, and 

 they place a higher value on it than on any other article. They are 

 described by the author as a miserable-looking race, speaking a 

 dialect of the ancient Cingalese language, mixed with Talengo, and 

 which is not understood by the Cingalese generally. Their religion 

 consists in the worship of the tortoise Ebba, to whom offerings are 

 made on the occasion of childbirth and sickness. If the sick person, 

 in whose behalf the offerings are made, does not speedily recover, he 

 or she is abandoned to die alone, the body remaining unburied. The 

 most singular circumstance connected with the tribe is the total 

 seclusion of the women ; strangers are not permitted to approach 

 their villages, and a father does not ever see his daughter after she 

 has grown up, nor does a mother ever see her male children after 

 they have attained the age of manhood. 



At the time of childbirth the husband leaves his wife to the care 

 of another female for a few days, the nurse leaving before the return 

 of the father. Formerly the tribe appeared not to employ clothing, 

 but more recently they have commenced its adoption. 



ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.— Dec. 14. 



Geography of Formosa. — Mr. Swinhoe, Consul at Tai-"Wan-Eoo, 

 forwarded an interesting paper of notes on the Island of Formosa, 

 which is now a Chinese province. Formosa is of very difficult access, 

 owing to the absence of harbours, the rocky character of the coast, 

 and the strong set of the great equatorial current, which was de- 

 scribed by Admiral Collinson as flowing near the island at the rate 

 of four and a half to five miles an hour. 



Formosa produces excellent lignite coal, tea, jute, rice, sugar, and 

 the general productions of a sub-tropical region. Thecoalwas described 

 by Admiral Collinson as being worked by means of adits, where it 

 cropped out on the surface, no shafts being sunk. The south cape 

 of the island was described by Sir Harry Parkes as being inhabited 

 by a tribe of aboriginal savages, numbering about 200 or 300 people, 

 who destroyed all strangers who were wrecked on their part of the 

 coast; nor were those who fell into the hands of the Chinese in 

 a much better condition, for of the crews of two large vessels 

 wrecked on the coast in 1842, numbering 297 persons, all but twelve 

 were judicially murdered in cold blood in the capital. Since then 

 the island has been opened to British commerce by the Elgin treaty, 

 and a brisk trade is being carried on by steamers between Formosa 

 and Hong Kong. 



