146 
VOYAGE OP THE POTOMAC. 
[February, 
advancements in improvement ; while those within the tropics, 
feehng less necessity for exertion, remain much longer in their 
primitive state. The happy medium, as usual, lies between the 
two, for it needs no argument to prove that the arts and sciences 
have always flourished with the most vigour under the temperate 
zone. We may thus, in some measure, account for the fact, that 
the Asiatic nations, though of great antiquity, have made far less 
rapid advances in the arts and sciences, and every species of im- 
provement, than modern nations in more northern latitudes, who 
sprang into existence, as it were, but yesterday. 
This proposition will be more fully illustrated when we come 
to speak of the Chinese, who appear to have stuck at a certain 
point in the scale of improvement, above which they have not 
risen since the days of Confucius. 
The Suniatrans, however, without being impelled by keen ne- 
cessity in the construction of their habitations, have advanced 
many degrees beyond most other islanders in the luxurious and 
effeminating climate of the eastern world. Their doosoons, or 
villages, are generally erected on some commanding site, near a 
river or lake, which not only affords them facilities for bathing, — 
a recreation of which they are very fond, and which is required 
by health, as well as enjoined by the Mahometan faith ; but serves 
also as a channel of communication for personal intercourse and 
the transportation of merchandise. The frames of their houses 
are of wood, resting on tall upright posts, sunk a few feet in the 
ground. The roofs are variously covered, but most generally with 
the leaf of the neepah, or palm-tree. The floor consists of bam- 
boos, placed across in form of sleepers, which are covered with 
laths of the same material, each of which is about an inch in 
breadth, and over these is spread a carpet of mats, rendering the 
apartments quite comfortable, as there is no cold to be excluded. 
The lightness of the materials which form such an edifice, and the 
simplicity of its construction, are admirably adapted to a country 
liable to be frequently shaken to its centre by earthquakes and 
volcanic eruptions ; being less perilous to the inhabitants than if 
built of clay, or even of mud. Necessity has taught them this 
fact ; but yet, as an art or a science, the Sumatrans know nothing 
of architecture. 
The furniture of these dwellings comprises but few articles, and 
