288 
THE CHINESE IN SINGAPORE, 
different kinds of vegetables. Those who have a little money add to 
these things arrack, fowls, ducks, and pork ; they also eat siri and 
smoke tobacco just as the Chinese in Town do. There are also a 
good number of opium smokers; w T hen they have once acquired 
the habit they cannot break it off and they consume their money 
upon the drug. 
They wear short jackets and short trowsers made mostly of 
coarse Nankeen, and unbleached stuff; they have a bag tied round 
their loins in which they keep their money and other little things; 
they go bare footed and wear bamboo hats on their heads to protect 
them from the sun; some wear felteaps, which, though very thick, they 
say are not uncomfortably warm; this is their common dress, but on 
extraordinary occasions they wear shoes, white jackets and silk 
trowsers, and when they come to Town they have umbrellas to 
screen them from the sun, and in every particular resemble the 
Chinese in Town. 
The houses in which they live have wooden pillars ; the walls are 
formed of attap leaves, they do not cover the roof with tiles, but with 
attaps. This is the prevailing description of houses. They resemble 
in a great measure the houses of the Malays, but there is this difference, 
that the houses of the Malays are mostly raised above the ground, 
whereas those of the Chinese are low on the surface ; the walls of the 
houses are formed, some of the bark of trees, some of kadjang, and 
others of dried grass ; some cover their roofs also with dried grass ; 
those who are in pretty good circumstances use thin planks for their 
walls, but there are very few such. Except the temples, none of the 
Chinese houses are covered with tiles. 
Their wages vary. Those who are skilled in planting siri receive 
a monthly pay of 4 dollars, the next get 3 and 2 dollars. The a- 
mount of wages is determined by the quality of work whe.her it is 
good or inferior. The amount of wages of labourers in the jungle 
differs. Generally speaking, each labourer gets about 3 dollars per 
month, the wages of those who cut the Gambier leaves and of those 
who boil the gambier are somewhat more, but neither is their rate of 
wages fixed, they are. paid more or less in proportion as the price of 
