SINGAPORE. 413 



good, and affords some instructive moral. There were many accom- 

 paniments to this performance, such as the mode of applying the 

 tortures by a Brahmin, and the performances of a clown, who showed 

 much cleverness, particularly in the mode of mimicking a European 

 in his dress and manners. The music was thought by several of our 

 gentlemen to resemble the Spanish, from which, however, it could 

 not have been derived. In truth, these very operas, if so they may 

 be called, may have been enacted some two thousand years ago, or 

 long prior to the dawning of civilization in Europe; and the con- 

 templation of this probability served to give additional interest to the 

 exhibition. 



The Klings are but transient visiters to Singapore. They come, as 

 before remarked, from the neighbourhood of Madras, remain for two 

 or three years, obtain a little money, and return. Their wages, 

 and that of labourers and servants, are but four dollars a month, out 

 of which they feed and clothe themselves. The cost of doing so, 

 however, amounts to little ; for they subsist almost entirely upon rice 

 and sugar, if they can obtain them, and go nearly naked. Some of 

 them are artisans, in which case they receive the usual daily wages, 

 the amount of which may be understood from the fact, that half a 

 dollar a day was paid in the squadron to calkers. 



At Singapore, we met with a Gentoo of the Brahminical caste, who 

 had been sent thither by the Indian government, for some defalcation. 

 Although of the same complexion as the other Hindoos we saw at 

 Singapore, his features were very different from theirs. The great 

 distinction was in the facial angle, which by some of us was thought 

 to be fully equal to ninety degrees, and in the mouth. His lips were 

 quite thin, and the lobes of his ears extraordinarily large, although 

 not perforated. This I was informed was characteristic of the 

 Brahmins. It was somewhat remarkable to find a person of his high 

 caste, transported to a convict settlement ; for they generally affect to 

 lead very pure lives, and by the commission of any open immorality 

 are exposed to the loss of caste. 



From the information we obtained at Singapore, from good autho- 

 rity, the burning of widows still takes place in Hindoostan, notwith- 

 standing the enactment by the British government, abolishing the 

 practice. The only difference is that it is done privately; and, 

 according to the Brahmin, it always has been continued among the 

 upper classes. Hook-swinging and walking on burning coals are 

 also practised; and our missionaries have witnessed them in Singa- 



VOL. v. 104 



