after carrying them from Tannabank to Batavia. Tannabank means in Malay, Land of the Friends; and such it surely is to the Dutch, who have their tables plentifully supplied from this as from a public store, and the market taxes into the bargain. Besides these articles, the freed slaves cultivate small fields of rice and tobacco for their own consumption; and they are the only people who cultivate the betel and areca, so much used here, and which, in the Malay language, they call Siri and Pinang. I was informed that these people, besides supplying the place, sold considerable quantities of these articles to the Chinese who trade between Batavia and Canton, where it is also much in vogue. But they get the gambir themselves from Malacca. It has been already res marked, that the constant use of the betel has a very disagrecable effect upon the lips, gums, and teeth, in the eyes of strangers. But the dirty brown colour it gives their teeth does not affect the enamel. It may be rubbed off, and then they appear quite clean, and very white. I saw this done repeatedly, and never observed any teeth spoiled by the use of it. There is another singular practice universal among all the natives of Java, and imitated by many of the free slaves, Portuguese, and Malays, which appears particular to this place. They grind down the extremities of the teeth in both jaws with a whetstone, till they have rendered them smooth and flat, so as that the junction, when they are shut, may be quite close or complete. This operation, I was told, was painful to them, but not by any means so much so as I should have apprehended. I saw the whetstones they commonly use, and found them of two kinds; one sort was evidently of lava, very compact and hard, found in the mountains of Java. The other kind was of the same nature as the common hone, and brought to them from Canton by the Chinese. Not content with this first operation, they cut a deep groove with a very sharp instrument of hard steel, quite across the enamel of the teeth of the upper jaw, and directly in

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the middle between the gums and the extremities. This they seem to consider as a very particular ornament, and what appears singularly surprising to a European, they suffer no inconvenience from it. The decay of the teeth, which we find occasioned from the exposure of the substance of the teeth to the free access of the air, does

not affect them here. However, there are several reasons that appear in some measure to account for it. In Europe such caries and decay happen indeed when the enamel is destroyed, and the substance of the tooth laid bare to the access of the air; but the destruction of the enamel is the effect of previous disease of the tooth, and the consequent destruction of the substance may be owing fully as much to the diseased action of the enamel, communicated to the substance of the tooth, with which it is in such close contact, as to the deleterious influences of the air. In this case there is no previous disease of the enamel, and of course no communication of it to the substance of the tooth. Besides, they live in a warm climate, and respire an atmosphere whose temperature is equable, and never subject to those vicissitudes of heat and cold, which particularly prevail in the northern countries of Europe, where diseases of the teeth are common. The food they use is not of the same putrescent nature as ours. They live chiefly on rice, and drink no fermented or vinous liquors. And the constant use of the astringent juice of the gambir, and the antiseptic qualities of the cardamom seeds, and other spices they use with their betel, may, in some measure, be supposed preservatives of the gums and teeth, and even to preserve them from the air, as they are constantly covered over with these substances. Although white teeth are reckoned a peculiar ornament by the natives of Europe, they are not so in the estimation of the Javanese fair, nor in the eyes of their admirers. Jet black is their favourite colour, and their standard of beauty for the teeth. It is a common phrase in all their mouths, " monkeys have white teeth, but we choose to have ours black." Accordingly they paint all their teeth in both jaws of a jet-black colour, except the two middle incisores, which they gild, or cover over with gold-leaf in each; and when the black paint or gilding wears off, they replace them both with as much care as the belles of Europe seek to purify and whiten theirs.

The Javanese and Malays, in general, are of a cowardly, but malicious and revengeful, disposition. They will stab or poison for the smallest causes, and many of them will commit murder for money. The common hire of an assassin among themselves is a dollar, and it seems the crime is frequently perpetrated. It is com mon when they are much pleased or well treated by any one, to express their gratitude by offering to kill any of his enemies, ort any person he may have a quarrel with; at the same time they contrive their measures so well as often to escape detection. Nots long ago a Dutch clergyman was murdered in this way, about tent or twelve miles from Batavia, and the assassins never could be found out. Clergymen here engage in civil speculation as well as in theological studies. This man had taken a lease of some lands: from the governor and council, and was thought extremely rigid by the Malay and Javanese tenants in collecting his rents; and, in revenge, they determined to murder him. He had a house on his farm, and a church close by, where he used to preach on Sundays. One morning, going to his church, he was stabbed, in three places, and instantly expired. I was told this by a gentleman who knew the clergyman, and the circumstances of: his murder. But, although they make so light of assassinations. of this kind, they never attack openly, or dare to face an enemy who is aware of them. Ten of them would fly before a single European armed, and on his guard. It is this dread that keeps them so much in subjection to the Dutch. They acknowledge themselves that, were it not for their fire-arms and artillery, they would be in great danger, as they are more than a thousand to one against them. The sixth class of inhabitants are the Chinese, many of whom have settled here, and are engaged in trade between Batavia and Canton. They are the most active and industrious class of the whole, and carry on the greatest part of the business of the place. They are severely taxed, but still they find resources for paying them, and living comfortably. They retain the customs, manners, religion, ceremonies, character, and dress of their native country. They are great cheats, especially the merchants. I wanted to buy two or three yards of cotton-cloth at Batavia, and as I did not understand the language, the landlord of the hotel, went with me, and conducted me to a Chinese shop, where I saw a small piece of about seven yards, which I would have purchased at a reasonable price. The Chinese woman (the merchant's wife,) who stood behind the counter, demanded thirty dollars for

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it. I should have thought four dollars a sufficient price, and was much surprised at the extravagance of the demand. The landlord told me twenty dollars was the usual price of such a piece, and advised me to offer that sum. I replied that I thought it too dear, and should not purchase it at all, and turned towards the door of the shop to go out. The woman, observing this, offered the cloth for twenty dollars, then for fifteen, for ten, and at last for three. I went away, however, without buying it, and much surprised that the landlord should have advised me to offer twenty dollars for what, in his own presence, the woman at last offered me for three. I understood afterwards the landlord would have put the overplus into his own pocket, and paid the merchant only the just price; and it seems this is the common practice at Batavia, wliere the Dutch employ the Chinese to execute any business, or furnish any articles of merchandise, but receive the price themselves, paying the Chinese only a very small part of it. The Javanese have many singular customs and practices. They pretend particularly to a knowledge of herbs, and remedies of wonderful virtue and efficacy in the cure of all diseases, and to great skill in magic and fascination. In every country where diseases are frequent and dangerous, and physicians few and ignorant, empiricism prevails, and superstitious credulity in amulets and charms is carried to the greatest length. This seems to be peculiarly the case at Batavia, and the numberless deaths that constantly occur, notwithstanding all these infallible remedies, have not cured their confidence in them. The Dutch say, indeed, that they know neither the nature nor composition of these nostrums; that the Javanese only are in possession of the secret, and that they alone know the plants and simples whence they are prepared, and the forests or mountains where they grow, and that no temptation has yet prevailed upon them to discover them to any European. It is not surprising that such things should be credited and received amongst the ignorant vulgar; but at Batavia, men of the best sense and understanding in other respects are equally duped.

(To be continued.)

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ART. II. Letters on the Elgin Marbles, and the Sculptures of the Temple of Minerva at Athens; written in London, and addressed to M. Canova at Rome. By M. Quatremere de Quincey.

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Your letters from London, during your stay in that capital, on the Sculptures of the Temple of Minerva at Athens, (for the preservation of which, and the pleasure they afford, Europe is indebted to the ardent and enlightened zeal of Lord Elgin), together with the observations again addressed to me since your return to Rome, gave rise to a double impression, which I found difficult to explain. It was a mixed sensation of confidence and doubt. Unable, on the one hand, to suspect either your taste or candour, I felt obliged to admit the transcendant merit of those works; on the other hand, I knew not what secret motive it was, that inclined me to detract somewhat from the high estimation in which you held them.

The sight of these works, has not merely dispelled all my doubts, but, I imagine, revealed the cause of them; it seemed to have originated in a feeling of self-love, by no means unusual, which cannot patiently submit to a diminution or change of a settled opinion, respecting the absolute or relative merit of persons or things. It is a feeling, probably of the same character with that which at one time stimulates men to raise themselves above others, and at another time, to degrade their superiors; and becomes the main spring of emulation or envy according to the good or bad direction given it by the passions.

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This spring is not less active in the sphere of erudition, talents, and science, than in the common circle of life, where the contest is for superiority in power, credit, riches, or rank. Let an individual proclaim that his researches have been more extensive than yours, that he has penetrated further into unknown countries than yourself, and has discovered wonders of which you have no conception; a slight feeling of envy, or an involuntary doubt as to the superiority of the objects he describes, will probably be excited in the minds of those who have preceded him