J64 DETAILS respecting cochin china. 
Cochin China the roof is commonly covered with leaves; in the 
other provinces they cover it with rice straw, or with a hind of 
long grass called Trank. Many houses are almost entirely made 
with bambu and some other woods. In some parts they are built 
upon piles. The public edifices are covered with tiles, and have 
thick walls of brick. 
Little furniture is found in these houses, and few household 
utensils. Some pots, some cups, two or three mats, bits of wood, 
some porcelain spoons, and that is all. 
Rice forms the most essential part of their food, the same as 
in China; they could not make a single meal without rice. They 
most often eat it with a bad ragout of fish, pungent beans, and 
a water of very salt fish which they call nu6e mam At great 
dinners their table is furnished with the flesh of pigs or other 
animals, amongst which ought to be comprehended dogs, foxes, 
and frogs. They ordinarily make three meals a day, always with 
rice. Breakfast they call the morning rice; dinner the noon rice, 
and supper the evening rice. The rich drink tea from China, and 
the poor tne tea of the country. They have a-kind of wine made 
from rice or millet which we call arrack, and which is nearly as strong 
as our brandy. There are vines which grow spontaneously on the 
mountains, but the grape is very acid, and wall not do to make 
wine. They sit, with the legs crossed, four or five persons round 
a circular table, and thus eat, each holding a bowl of rice in hi? 
aand. The women never eat at the same table with the men. 
CONDITION OP THE WOMEN. 
As in many other Asiatic countries, the women in Cochin China 
are in a state of the most abject degradation. The rich regard 
them as destined to serve as the instruments of their pleasure, and 
the poor of their wants. For this reason they are devoted to 
offices which require the greatest bodily fatigue, and are subject¬ 
ed to such a submission to the lords of creation that they can¬ 
not have a will of their own. The labours of the fields are or¬ 
dinarily their portion. They guide the plough, and handle the 
spade and mattock; from morning to evening they wade in the 
watc-r transplanting rice. They carry provisions to market. They 
