DETAILS RESPECTING COCHIN CHINA. 
65 
cultivate and they manufacture the cotton and silk for the use of 
their families. They often take the principal part in commercial 
affairs. The Cochin Chinese women, however, more fortunate than 
those of China, do not submit their feet to torture in order to 
make them small and pretty. They have also sufficient liberty 
of motion, and of communication with strangers; their habitual inno- 
ence leaves no room for the jealousy of their husbands. But these 
remarks only apply to the lower class of people; for all mandarins, 
as well as the king, and those of his family, imprison, so to say, their 
wives and their concubines, and exercise over them, as over all their 
inferiors, the most absolute authority. Concubines are slightly subordi¬ 
nate to legitimate wives, but real harmony rarely reigns between them. 
ARTS AND SCIENCES 
The Cochin Chinese have little knowledge of painting and sculp¬ 
ture. Some amongst them, however, shew talent and facility in the 
acquisition of Arts; but they have no school for teaching them ; 
and men of natural talent are discouraged by the prospect of being 
employed iti working almost gratuitously for the king, if they give 
proof of ability. They have made some progress in music and the 
comic art; that is to say, they play some instruments and some come¬ 
dies which please them; but this music and these dramas would be 
far from agreeable to the taste of a European. In agriculture 
and architecture they are inferior to the Chinese. They work me¬ 
tals with a passable skill and neatness. They do not at all know 
how to manufacture porcelain; they buy that of China. It is in the 
building of ships that they have attained the greatest perfection. 
They have vessels which are made in a masterly manner with 
osier, and plastered with a paste made of diluted mud and sea shells. 
But ordinarily, their vessels are constructed with five planks joined 
together without any kind of carpenter's work; they make them take 
the requisite form by exposing them to fire. They are attached to 
each other by pegs of wood and ufiited by four hoops of bambu, after 
which they are plastered with oil and bitumen. Two eyes are paint¬ 
ed at the bows of their ships and vessels, to denote the vigilance 
which ought to characterize those who guide them. They are re¬ 
markable for their power of resisting the shock and the violence of 
waves, as also for going close before the wind, and for quick sailing. 
CTo be Continued.) 
