oO DETAILS IlESPEClhNG COCHIN CHINA, 
u- ^atmcnt, for, when the duties are collected, he is charged to remit: 
the same to the great Mandarin, who does the duties of a Collec¬ 
tor General, and he is responsible for the whole district. This great 
Mandarin is paid by the King; but a very small amount is allowed 5 
him: his fixed salary amounts not to above the value of one hun¬ 
dred dollars yearly. However, if he performs his duty well, he 
sometimes receives (besides his salary) gratuities which mostly con¬ 
sist of fine silk vestments. These gentlemen take also good care to 
compensate themselves by their exactions from poor people. 
INirABITANTS'. 
The Cochin Chinese occupy a lower rank in the scale of civiliza- 
lion than their neighbours the Chinese. But the resemblance of 
their shape, their colour, and their features, as well as the identity of 
their manners, their superstitious ceremonies and their customs, indi¬ 
cate a common origin. The universal practice of chewing betel and 
areca and of smoking tobacco, which reddens their lips and blackens 
their teeth, joined to their natural ugliness; render them sufficiently 
disagreeable to European eves. A pouch or little bag of silk, attach¬ 
ed to their girdle, or suspended from their shoulder when they are on 
a journey, containing areca, betel and tobacco, forms a necessary part 
of their dress, of whichever sex and of whatever condition they may 
be. Every person m the least rich or distinguised is followed by a 
servant, whose office it is to carry the instruments and the ingre¬ 
dients which serve for mastication and smoking. This people is 
<of a childish and servile character. They make no difficulty in 
submitting to the most humiliating meannesses before the authori¬ 
ties to whom they are subject, in order to obtain what they desire: 
hence the repeated prostrations in token of their devotion and sub¬ 
mission. When they are interrogated, they never give themselves the 
trouble of answering the truth, they only think of giving to those 
with whom they are speaking a reply which will please them. It 
is requisite to know them well in order not to allow oneself to be 
deceived by their knavery and duplicity. There is more indepen¬ 
dant spirit and less hypocrisy in the manner of the inhabitants of 
Lower Cochin China. It is the Tongkinese who show most out¬ 
ward humiliation in action and speech before their superiors, and 
m whom one remarks the most hypocrisy. 
