212 , BATAVIA. 
at all meals and at all seasons of the year, being considered 
as an excellent stimulus to the stomach. The business of the day 
occupies little more than a couple of hours, from ten to twelve, 
when he again sits down to dinner, a meal that is some- 
what more solid than the breakfast. From table he retires to 
sleep and remains invisible till about five in the evening, when 
he rises and prepares for taking a ride or a walk, but generally 
the former. In the open doors of the little covered carriages 
male or female slaves, or both, sit on the steps, according as 
they may happen to be occupied by gentlemen or ladies. 
From seven to nine are the usual hours for receivino; and 
returning visits, when they play cards, drink wine, and 
smoke tobacco. In the dry season these evening parties 
generally meet in the little summer-houses which, as I hare 
already noticed, are built on the margin of the canals, snuff- 
ing the nauseous effluvia w^hich abundantly evaporate from 
the nearly stagnant water, and tormented by myriads of 
mosquitoes and other insects, for the propagation of which 
the climate, the dirty water, and the evergreen trees, are so 
remarkably favourable. The inhabitants, however, are so 
passionately attached to their canals and their trees, that a 
proposal in the Council to fill up the one and cut down the 
other had almost produced an insurrection in the city. But 
neither these insects, troublesome as they are, nor the stench 
of the water, can be considered as the most offensive 
nuisances to which those evening parties are liable to be ex- 
posed. The low^er class of the inhabitants, the Javanese, the 
Malays, the Chinese, and the slaves of every nation, descend 
the steps of wooden ladders placed down the sides of the 
canals, and there, without any ceremony, perform the rites 
