84 VOYAGE FROM INDIA TO SIAM AND MALACCA. 



joy they wore these fring-es ; they were really made from long 

 Pisang leaves split through the middle and fringed cross ways, 

 They are first worn round their neck, then across their shoulders, 

 and at last round their loins. 



My attention was attracted by a continual murmuring ; I 

 inquired into its cause. It was the singing of some women, who 

 wanted to cure another of her headache. This afforded me at 

 the same time the opportunity of seeing the interior of their 

 houses. I was admitted and allowed to mount, and I found the 

 invalid sitting on her feet, some of the women lying near her 

 and four standing before her ; one of them held somethings in her 

 hand, which was supposed to be some article for fumigating, I 

 could however neither see nor smell it. Their whole song 

 consisted of one tone, which was taken first at a very high pitch, 

 but by repeating it so often they slowly sank to the lowest notes, 

 then they paused and one of them commenced again very high, 

 and the others chimed in until they had again arrived at the 

 lowest notes. They kept on singing in this way as long as I was 

 there, which however was not very long, because it soon gTew 

 dark. I felt the invalid's forehead which was a little warmer 

 than ordinarily and covered with weak perspiration. Her hands 

 were also hot and her pulse quicker than usual, which symptoms 

 mig'ht point to a cold in a body inclined to laziness. 



The number of children that I met here was not large 

 either, and was far smaller than what I had seen on the coast in 

 villages of equal size. I saw very few animals here, they kept 

 some pigs near their houses, and the pork is said to be of very 

 good taste here, because they feed the pigs on coconuts. There 

 were also some small hens here, and a female dog, very much 

 like the Pariah dogs, which I had seen on the coast, and pro- 

 bably it was brought from there, only it seemed to have shorter 

 legs than the ordinary kind. 



There were many swallows flj^ing about near the sea, as 

 far as I could see however they were of grey colour, and as big 

 as those near the coast, and therefore I doubted them to be of 

 the kind of those that built the valuable nests, 



I only saw a few parrots and not one butterfly unknown to 

 me ; only the common ones that live on the Nerium oleander and 

 have the gold coloured chrysalis, and another kind living on the 

 Mangos, being' pearl coloui ed with black veins. One kind of moth 



