r many hundred acres, and the Dutch,
grudging the waste of so much land, will not sell any for this purpose
but at the most exorbitant price. The Chinese, however, contrive to
raise the purchase-money, and afford another instance of the folly and
weakness of human nature, in transferring a regard for the living to the
dead, and making that the object of solicitude and expence, which cannot
receive the least benefit from either. Under the influence of this
universal prejudice, they take an uncommon method to preserve the body
entire, and prevent the remains of it from being mixed with the earth
that surrounds it. They enclose it in a large thick coffin of wood, not
made of planks joined together, but hollowed out of the solid timber
like a canoe; this being covered, and let down into the grave, is
surrounded with a coat of their mortar, called chinam, about eight or
ten inches thick, which in a short time becomes as hard as a stone. The
relations of the deceased attend the funeral ceremony, with a
considerable number of women that are hired to weep: It might reasonably
be supposed that the hired appearance of sorrow could no more flatter
the living than benefit the dead, yet the appearance of sorrow is known
to be hired among people much more reflective and enlightened than the
Chinese. In Batavia, the law requires that every man should be buried
according to his rank, which is in no case dispensed with; so that if
the deceased has not left sufficient to pay his debts, an officer takes
an inventory of what was in his possession when he died, and out of the
produce buries him in the manner prescribed, leaving only the overplus
to his creditors. Thus in many instances are the living sacrificed to
the dead, and money that should discharge a debt, or feed an orphan,
lavished in idle processions, or materials that are deposited in the
earth to rot.[158]

[Footnote 158: Their veneration for the dead is certainly excessive, and
by no means in unison with the rest of their character, which seems to
be made up of the grossest selfishness, avarice, and apathy. They often
visit the graves of their friends, strew flowers around them, and when
they leave them, deposit presents and sundry articles of provisions,
which, of course, are soon removed, though not by the dead. In this,
respect, then, it is very obvious that their mourning may not be quite
useless to the living.--E.]

Another numerous class among the inhabitants of this cou