BAT A VI A. 213 
of the goddess who, in our country at least, is usually wor- 
shipped in retirement. Both men and women are constantly 
meeting on the same step, without being in the least discon- 
certed with themselves, or molested by the presence of the 
parties in the summer-houses or bye-standers in the street. 
The man turns his back to the water, and the woman faces 
it. At this time of the day the canals are all alive with the 
numbers of men, w^omen, and children, that promiscuously 
plunge into the water. The women are considered as the 
best swimmers, paddling with their hands in the same manner 
as quadiTipeds do, and not striking out as is the common 
practice among Europeans. 
But these conveniencies and amusements which the canals 
afford, and which are carried on under the eyes of the parties 
of pleasure assembled on their banks, gross as they are, may 
be considered as still less disgusting than a general usage in 
the cit}^, by which they are immediately succeeded. I have 
somewhere met with an observation, that an Englishman in 
building a house first plans out the kitchen, and a Dutchman 
the necessary. But the Dutch in Batavia, like the good 
people of Edinburgh, have contrived to dispense with con- 
veniencies of this kind, for which I have heard two different 
reasons assigned : one is, that the heat of the climate would 
operate so as to create a putrid fever in the city ; and the other, 
that the great bandicoot rat, of which I have spoken in the last 
chapter, would infest the temple in such a manner as to render 
the resort to it unsafe, especially for the male sex : the first 
is absurd, the last ridiculous. Instead, however, of such 
places of retirement they substitute large jars, manufactured 
V 
