COCHINCHINA. 297 
private entertainments, at a fixed sum for the day ; or they 
exhibit before the puWic in a temporary slied, entirely ex- 
posed in front. On such occasions, instead of clieering the 
performers with empty plaudits, the audience throw among 
them pieces of copper money : for this purpose, tlie Man- 
darins brought us some hundred pieces strung on cords, of the 
same kind as those which are current in China. By the 
Cochinchinesc the reoular drama is called Troien, or a rda- 
Hon of histories. To the operatic interlude of recitative, air 
and dancing they give the name of Song-sang ; and a grand 
chorus accompanied with the gojig, the kettle drum, casta- 
nets, trumpets and other noisy instruments, is called the Ring- 
rans. The Ambassador had ordered his band to attend on 
shore, where they played a few light airs ; but the Cochin- 
chinesc had no ear for the soft and harmonious chords of 
European music Their King-rang and their Song-sang were 
infinitely superior in their estimation, and were the more 
applauded in proportion as they were the more noisy. 
Leaving the comedians in the midst of their labours, we 
walked across the village green, which was also the market- 
place, where we were highly entertained with a variety of 
sports and gambols. The fourth of June was for once a day 
of general festivit}^ in this part of Cochinchina. In one place 
we observed about a dozen young fellows playing at foot-ball 
with a bladder ; in another, they w^ere displaying then' agility 
in leaping over an horizontal pole ; here a noisy groupe were 
amusing themselves in fighting cocks ; there young boys, in 
imitation of their elders, were training quaiis and other 
small birds, and even grasshoppers, to tear each other in 
Q Q 
