COCHINCHINA. 319 
stem and stern the}^ are raised to a considerable height, and 
are curiously carved into monstrous figures of dragons and 
. serpents, ornamented with gilding and painting. A number 
pf poles and spears bearing flags and streamers, pikes orna- 
mented with tufts of cows' tails painted red, lanterns and 
umbrellas, and other insignia denoting the rank of the pas- 
senger, are erected at each end of the boat. And as these 
people, like the Chinese, dificr in most of their notions from 
the greater portion of mankind, the company always sit in 
the fore part of the boat ; but as it would be a breach of 
good manners for the rowers to turn their backs on the pass- 
engers, they stand with their faces towards the bow of the 
boat, pushing the oars from them instead of pulling towards 
them, as is usually done in the western Avorld. The servants 
and the baggage occupy the stern of the boat. The vessels 
that are employed in the coasting trade, the fishing craft, 
and those which collect the Trepan and swallows' nests among 
the cluster of islands called the Paracels, are of various de- 
scriptions : many of them, like the Chinese Sampa?is^ covered 
with sheds of matting, under which a whole famil}^ constantly 
resides; and others, resembling the common proas of the 
Malays, both as to their hulls and rigging. Their foreign 
traders are built on the same plan as the Chinese junks, the 
form and construction of which are certainly not to be held 
out as perfect" models of naval architecture ; yet, as they 
have subsisted some thousands' of years unaltered, they are 
at least entitled to a little respect from the antiquity of the in- 
vention. As these vessels never were intended for ships of war, 
extraordinary swiftness for pursuit or escape was not an es- 
