304 COCHINCHINA. 
themselves occasionally in fishing, in collecting swallows' 
nests and the Biches de iner among the neighbouring islands, 
as luxuries for the use of their own great men, but more 
partrcularlj as articles of export for the China market; iu 
felhng timber ; building and repaiiing ships and boats, and a- 
few other occupations which, however, tliej take care shall 
not engross their whole time, but contrive to leave a con- 
siderable portion of it unemployed, or employed only in the 
pursuit of some favourite amusement : for they are not by 
any means of an idle disposition. But the activity and the 
industry of the women are so unabating, 'their pursuits so 
varied, and the fatigue they undergo so harassing, that the 
Cochinchinese appl}^ to them the same prov erbial expression 
w]ii"]i we confer on a cat, observinf^ that a woman, ha vino- 
nine lives, bears a great deal of killing. It is evident indeed, 
from the whole tenor of their conduct, that the men, even in 
the common ranks of life, consider the other sex as destined 
for their use ; and those in a higher station, as subservient to 
their pleasures. The number of wives or of concubines, 
which a man may fiind it expedient to take, is not limited 
by any law or rule ; but here, as in China, the first in 
point of date claims precedence and takes the lead in all 
domestic concerns. The terms on which the parties are 
united are not more easy than those by which the}" may be 
separated. To break a sixpence between two parting lovers 
is considered, among the peasantry of some of the counties 
in England, as an avowal and pledge of unalterable fidelit3\ 
In Cochinchina, the breaking of one of their copper coins or 
a pair of chop-sticks between man , and wife, before proper 
