SUMATRA. 
concealed from the fight. They fometimes combine a variety of flow- 
ers in fuch a manner as to appear like one, and fix them on a fingle 
flock; but thefe, being more formal, are lefs elegant, than the wreaths* 
Diilmguifhing Among the country peot^le, particularly in the fouthern countries, the 
virgins? ''^ virgins (ora.'^g gaddees, or god defies, as it is ufually pronounced) are 
diftinguiOied by a fillet which goes acrofs the front of the hair, and 
faftens behind. This is commonly a thin plate of filver, about half an 
inch broad : thofe of the firfi: rank have it of gold, and thofe of the lo^vcft 
clafs have their fillet of the leaf of the f^'eepab tree, Befides this peculiar 
ornament, their ftate of puccllage Is denoted by their having rings or 
bracelets of filver or gold on. their wrifts. Strings of coins round the 
neck are iiniverfally worn by children, and the females, before they are 
of an age to be clothed, have, what may not be i inaptly termed, a mo- 
defly piece, being a plate of filver in the fiiape of a heart, hung before 
by a chain of the fame metal, pafiSng round the waift. The young 
women in the country villages, manufafl:ure themfeives the cloth that 
confl:itutes the principal and often the only part of their drefs, or the 
cayen farrong, and this reaches from thebreafi: n& lower than the knees.. 
Thofe worn by the Malay women and men, come from the Eugguefs 
iflands to the eaftward, and with them extend as low as the feet : but 
here, as in other inftances, the more fcrupulous attention to appear* 
ances, does not accompaay the fuperior degree of real modelty* 
Modt of filing Both fexes have the extraordinary cnrt-om of filliig and otherwife dif- 
flguring their teeth, which are naturally very white and beautiful, from the 
fimplicity of their food. For a file, they make ule of a fmall whetftone,. 
and the patients lie on their back during the operation- Many, parti- 
cularly the women of the Lampoon country, have their teeth rubbed 
down quite even with the gums ; others have them formed in points, and 
fome file off no more than the outer coat and extremities, in order that they 
may the better receive and retain the jetty blacknefs, which they almolt uni- 
verfally adorn them with. The black ufed on thefe occafions is the em- 
pyreumatic oil of the cocoa-nut Ihell. When this is not applied, the 
filing 
