236 B A T A V I A. 
the shape of a scythe. A single stroke of this weapon will 
sometimes completely lay open the body of his antagonist. 
But whether thus hacking down with cutlasses, or pricking 
each other like gentlemen with small swords, will be con- 
sidered as the more humane and the more genteel practice, 
is a point I must leave to be determined by the Malays, and 
those refined gentlemen of our own country who can derive 
amusement from the destruction of so noble-spirited an 
animal. But while we condemn the ignorant and but half- 
civilized Malays for their eagerness in the pursuit of this fa- 
vourite and inhuman sport, we cannot too much reprobate 
the same barbarous practice so sedulously encouraged, as an 
amusing relaxation, in man 3^ of our seminaries of education, 
where it is usually preceded by the elegant exercise of foot- 
ball, as a suitable preparatory for the cock-pit, which on 
such occasions is generally graced by a few black eyes and 
broken shins. Thus are scenes of quarrelling and cruelty 
made familiar to youth, as the proper accompaniments of 
gaming and idleness in riper years. The education of Malay 
children is not less attended to in their way. While too 
young to manage so large an animal as the cock, they in- 
dulge their propensity to this species of gaming by carrying 
about in little cages, like the Chinese, quails trained to fight, 
and different species of grasshoppers. ^ 
The ferocious conduct of the Malays would appear to be 
sometimes the result rather of a wanton cruelty of disposition, 
or an implacable hatred of strangers, than of mental distress, 
insult, or injury. On the coast of Sumatra we had the mis- 
