430 S I N G A P O R E. 



buffaloes, to distribute alms to the poor, and in case of war to furnish 

 its quota of men, arms, and ammunition. Dyar Cambodia sought 

 refuge at the island of Rhio in 1773. Since that time the kingdom 

 has undergone various revolutions, and different sovereigns have 

 ruled, who have finally by their intestine wars almost depopulated 

 the country. 



The inhabitants have many singular customs, in some respects not 

 unlike those heretofore described as existing among the Polynesian 

 islanders. 



In religion, the Malays of the peninsula are all Moslems, and are 

 said to resemble the Arabs in the simplicity of their worship more 

 than they do the inhabitants of Hindoostan. They practise circum- 

 cision, and the women appear in public unveiled. They hold three 

 days in the week as lucky to begin an undertaking, namely, Monday, 

 Thursday, and Friday. They devour locusts, and consider buffalo- 

 meat as the greatest luxury. 



As soon as a child is born and washed, the father puts his mouth 

 to its ear and asks a blessing. On the seventh day, the operation of 

 shaving the head takes place, when prayers are likewise offered up. 

 A midwife is always in attendance at the birth, and is engaged for 

 forty days. On the fortieth day the mother performs her ablutions 

 and prayers, and is then looked upon as clean. 



It is customary, on an engagement of marriage, for a day to be fixed 

 for the bridegroom to transmit the money for the nuptial expenses, 

 before which day the ceremony of filing the teeth of the woman is 

 gone through. This is performed by the women with a kind of fine 

 stone found at Acheen, or with a small steel file. The operation 

 is accomplished in an hour, but is very severe ; the teeth are filed 

 off to one-fourth of their length. This operation is also under- 

 gone by the males; but they encounter it at an early age, when it 

 is generally made an occasion for festivities. I have been informed 

 that this operation is never omitted, and that the figure thus given 

 to the teeth is considered as a great beauty. After the teeth are filed, 

 they are blackened, which is effected by a liquid called grang, ob- 

 tained by charring cocoanut-shells. This practice of filing the teeth 

 I had often observed before I heard of its being a general custom 

 among the Malays of the peninsula, having seen it among the natives 

 of Sooloo ; the fashion closely resembles the Africans of which I 

 have spoken in the first volume. 



Marriages are preceded by the betrothal of the parties. To make 



