346 



OBSERVATIONS ON SINGAPORE, EAST INDIES. 



costume cannot well be conceived. The language of nearly 

 every Asiatic nation throws its peculiar accents on the ear. 



The trades, like most of the eastern cities, are carried on in 

 the streets. Some of the streets are exclusively inhabited by 

 castes who work at the same trade. In one may be seen, 

 the workmen in brass and copper, which department of trade 

 generally embraces the manufacture of cooking-pans, lamps, 

 and drinking vessels, and similar articles of domestic use ; for 

 all these things are made of copper and brass, and hammered 

 out to the proper size and shape by manual labor. In another 

 street, you see the palankeen builders, house-joiners, cabinet- 

 makers, shoemakers, tailors, blacksmiths, and so on. The 

 money-changers take up their position at the corner of the 

 streets,, with their little tables before them ready to transact 

 business at a moment's notice. These men act sometimes in 

 the capacity of pawnbrokers, by lending small sums of money 

 upon the gold and silver ornaments which all here possess in 

 a greater or less degree. The opium vender has also bis little 

 table in the public street, with his box and scales upon it, and 

 tempting samples of the " dreamy drug." 



This fearful species of intoxication is more generally prac- 

 tised among the people of British India, than has been com- 

 monly supposed. The Mohammedans are particularly addicted 

 to its use, and much of the apathy and indifference observable 

 in the native character, may be attributed to this universal 

 evil, which would seem to be daily gaining ground among 

 them. Few can be surprised that the Emperor of China is 

 so anxious to prevent the importation of opium* into his do- 



* The engrossing taste of all ranks and degrees in China, for opium, a drug 

 whose importation has of late years exceeded the aggregate value of every other 

 English import combined, deserves some particular notice, especially in connection 

 with the revenues of British India, of which it forms an important item. The 

 use of this pernicious narcotic has become as extensive as the increasing demand 

 for it was rapid from the first.— Chinese Repository. 



