The principal employment of the men consists in con structing and repairing their huts, which occupies a con siderable portion of every year, and in fishing or trading to the neighbouring islands ; while the women attend to the preparation of the victuals and the culture of the ground. They generally kill their fish with spears, which they throw with great dexterity; and frequently go out with their canoes at night with burning straw to to allure the fish into shallow water. They are a re markably indolent race, and spend the greater part of their time in feasting and dancing. Their music is of the most simple description, plaintive and monotonous, but not without harmony ; and their dances are equally heavy and inanimate; the men and women forming a cir cle with their hands on each other's shoulders, moving slowly backwards and forwards, or from side to side, beating time with their feet. Their only- musical instru ment is a hollow bamboo, about two feet and a half in length, and three inches in diameter, along the outside of which is stretched a single string, which is pla'yed after the manner of a guitar, and accompanied with the voice.
The language spoken by these islanders is founded on the NIalay, and particularly resembles the dialect of Pegu. There are no books or vocabularies among them to assist in the acquisition of it, which appears to be a vcry difficult task to Europeans. The Dmish mis sionarics were never able to make mucla progress in the study of it. The habits of the natives present considerable impediments to everny learner. The language itself is very poor in words and expressions, and the natives are so taciturn, or rather indolent, that they speak too re luctantly or indistinctly to be easily understood. Many of thein speak a corrupted Portuguese, and various Eu ropean words are used in their cooversation with stran gers. They entertain a high veneration for those who are able to read and write, and believe that by these means Europeans can accotnplish ,upernatural effects.
They cannot be said to carry on any regular com merce, hut are frequently visited by trading vessels for the sale of the excellent cocoa-nuts which the islands produce; and numbers of Malays and Chinese arrive regularly in quest of the birds' nests already described. Those which are white and transparent are the most highly esteemed, and arc sold at Batavia for ten dollars per caty, (11 lb.) which usually contains about seventy of the nests ; but they bear ;a much higher 'nice in the ports of China. The natives have no money of their own, nor do they attach any value to the coins of other countries, except as ornainvnts, but they ate expert judges of the purity of the precious metals. The arti
cles which are most in requ..st among them ale, cloth, hatchets, sword-blades, tobacco, and arrack ; and a hun dred of their finest co:oalitits may be procured for a yard ol blue cloth. Some of them carry those articles to other islands, which JIT more remote from the tract of trading vessels, and exchange them lor canoes or other articles of native manufacture.
These islanders have scaicely any form of goveln. ment or legal control to bleb they pay subjecti9n. each village there is a captain or head inan, styled Om jah itariu," the great master of the house," who owes his station chiefly to his superior talents and intelligence, but who must content himself with friendly remon strances, and never attempt to command. All the pre ference shown to him consists in this, that when a ship arrives he is allowed to go first on board, and to rnake the bargain, if there is any thing to barter. These chiefs are usually more fluent in speech than their neighbours, and are commonly good•natured men, disposed to pre serve peace among the people. They are very inoffen sive to one another, and readily exchange kind offices with their friends. Theft, robbery, and murder, are rarely perpetrated among themselves ; but, when attack ed or injured by strangers, they fight with the greatest resoletion and spirit. \Vhen it happens occasionally that the men quarrel in their drinking parties, or that a gene ral dispute arises between their villages, a formal com bat ensues. The captains of the neighbouring villages assemble, and the combatants being chosen, are furnish ed with long sticks of the mango tice, of a certain thick ness. All who have any private quarrel usually embrace the opportunity of settling their disputes, and are in like manner supplied with the appropriate weapons. Two of the combatams then step out, and beat each other about the back and head till one of them is obliged to give up, and are followed by the other couples in succession. All .arc convinced ;at the conclusion, that whoever was coinpelled to yield was the offending party, and peace being thus restored, the matte' is often terminated, as it began, by a drinking entertainment.
Both sexes live from their inlancy without any re straint, and almost in promiscuous concubinage. They rarely marry till past the piime of life ; and even then arc continually dissolving their domestic connexions, and forming new matches, without any other law than their own choice.