he female parts being acted by
youths.--E.]

The funerals of the Chinese are very singular, as well as very rich
and pompous, forming grand and solemn processions, in which sometimes
at least 500 persons of both sexes assist, the women being all
cloathed in white. At these funerals they employ music to heighten the
shew, together with coloured umbrellas and canopies, carrying their
principal idol, which they call _Joostie de Batavia_, under one of
their canopies. Their tombs are some of them very magnificent. They
follow the idolatrous religion of their native country, and have a
pagoda, or idol temple, about the distance of a league from the
city, where they assemble for worship. They are perhaps the grossest
idolaters, and the most ridiculous in their opinions, of all the
pagans of the east, as they openly profess to worship and adore the
devil. This does not proceed from their ignorance or unbelief in a
God, but rather from mistaken notions in their belief concerning him.
They say that God is infinitely good and merciful, giving to man every
thing he possesses, and never doing any hurt; and therefore that there
is no need to worship him. But with the devil, the author of all ill,
they are desirous to live upon good terms, and to omit nothing that
can entitle them to his good graces. It is the devil therefore whom
they represent by the idol above mentioned, and in whose honour they
have frequently great feasts and rejoicings.

Like the Javans, the Chinese are extravagantly addicted to gaming
and laying wagers; and this humour, especially at cock-fights and the
new-year's feasts, drives them sometimes into downright madness.
They will not only stake and lose their money, goods, and houses, but
sometimes their wives and children; and when these are all lost, will
stake their beards, nails, and winds; that is, they bind themselves
not to shave their beards, pare their nails, or go on board ship to
trade, till they have paid their game debts. When reduced to this
condition, they are forced to hire themselves as the bond slaves of
some other Chinese. Under such misfortunes their only resource is,
that some relative, either at Batavia or China, pays their debts out
of compassion, and by that means reinstates them in their property and
freedom.

The _Malays_ who live at Batavia usually employ themselves in fishing,
having very neat and shewy vessels, the sails of which are most
ingeniously constructed of straw. These are