k my mattress in
a hurry and without a single word of thanks.

And I could not blame them for this.

[Illustration: Boys practising shooting.

_p._ 127.]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 7: A little more than five feet. Translator's Note.]

[Footnote 8: Let to-morrow take care of itself If to-day is ours to
enjoy.]

[Footnote 9: The latter is a sort of acorn which keeps good for a long
time. When pounded into an oily paste it is not altogether disagreeable
to the taste.]

CHAPTER X.

The Sakai woman--Conjugal fidelity--A life of labour--Betrothals
and nuptials--Love among the Sakais--Divorcement--No kissing--
Chastity--Bigamy--Maternity and its excesses--Aged before the
time--Fashion and coquetry.

Woman, who has been compared to nearly every sort of animal that flies,
creeps, swims or runs by poets and others of chivalrous sentiments,
amongst the Sakais is simply a woman. In speaking of her those good sons
of the East neither calumniate the dove nor the gazelle, and they do not
slander the tiger and the snake but when they are inclined to praise her
charms they do so with affection and brevity And this is not to be
wondered at when one considers that the female sex in the jungle,
although not beautiful to our taste (but very much so according to the
Sakay criterion) is good, laborious and incorruptible. These three
virtues, if they were better known in our parts would spare poor,
suffering humanity a great deal of prose, as well as poetry, without the
least damage to Art.

It is for this reason that the savages in the Malay States have always
considered, and still consider, the Woman as the faithful companion of
their life and as the mother of their children. They have never imputed
to her the sin committed by Eve, which in other countries, where ever so
little of Sacred History is known, has made her the butt of every
insulting, sarcastic and opprobrious term. They have never discussed, as
at the Macon council, the probability of a woman having a soul or not;
what little is necessary to harmonize with their own they have
recognized without any argument and they have found it in the care and
affection shown towards her dear ones and in her unswerving
faithfulness.

Amongst these uncivilized people there are no chivalrous traditions, it
is true, but neither have their women been driven to seek emancipation,
because, sharing with perfect equality the rights of the men, none
remain for them to cl