as been very liberal; it is universally black, and
is formed into a kind of circular wreath upon the top of the head, where
it is fastened with a bodkin, in a taste which we thought inexpressibly
elegant: The wreath of hair is surrounded by another of flowers, in
which the Arabian jessamine is beautifully intermixed with the golden
stars of the _bonger tanjong_.

Both sexes constantly bathe themselves in the river at least once
a-day, a practice which, in this hot country, is equally necessary both
to personal delicacy and health. The teeth of these people also,
whatever they may suffer in their colour by chewing betel, are an object
of great attention: The ends of them, both in the upper and under jaw,
are rubbed with a kind of whetstone, by a very troublesome and painful
operation, till they are perfectly even and flat, so that they cannot
lose less than half a line in their length. A deep groove is then made
across the teeth of the upper jaw, parallel with the gums, and in the
middle between them and the extremity of the teeth; the depth of this
groove is at least equal to one-fourth of the thickness of the teeth, so
that it penetrates far beyond what is called the enamel, the least
injury to which, according to the dentists of Europe, is fatal; yet
among these people, where the practice of thus wounding the enamel is
universal, we never saw a rotten tooth; nor is the blackness a stain,
but a covering, which may be washed off at pleasure, and the teeth, then
appear as white as ivory, which, however, is not an excellence in the
estimation of the belles and beaux of these nations.

These are the people among whom the practice that is called a _mock_, or
running a muck, has prevailed for time immemorial. It is well known,
that to run a muck, in the original sense of the word, is to get
intoxicated with opium, and then rush into the street with a drawn
weapon, and kill whoever comes in the way, till the party is himself
either killed or taken prisoner; of this several instances happened
while we were at Batavia, and one of the officers, whose business it is,
among other things, to apprehend such people, told us, that there was
scarcely a week in which he, or some of his brethren, were not called
upon to take one of them into custody. In one of the instances that came
to our knowledge, the party had been severely injured by the perfidy of
women, and was mad with jealousy before he made himself drunk with
opium; and we we