J A V A N E S E AND F A M I L Y
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MALAYS. 33
I could be a traveller and never touch either. It is
generally supposed, in Europe and America, that
housekeepers here, in the East, have little care or
vexation, where every family employs so many servants
; hut, on the contrary, their troubles seem to
multiply in direct ratio to the number of servants
employed. No servant there will do more than one
thing. If engaged as a nurse, it is only to care for
one child; if as a groom, it is only to care for one
horse, or, at most, one span of horses; and as all
these Malays are bent on doing every thing in the
easiest way, it is almost as much trouble to watch
them as to do their work.
The total population of the Residency of Batavia
is 517,762. Of these, 5,576 are Europeans;
47,570 Chinese; 463,591 native; 684 Arabs; and
341 of other Eastern nations.
All the natives are remarkably short in stature,
the male sex averaging not more than live feet three
inches in height, or four inches less than that of Europeans.
The face is somewhat lozenge-shaped, the cheekbones
high and prominent, the mouth wide, and the
nose short—not flat as in the negroes, or prominent
as in Europeans. They are generally of a mild disposition,
except the wild tribes in the mountainous
parts of Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, Timor, Ceram, and
a few other large islands. The coast people are
invariably hospitable and trustworthy. They are
usually quiet, and extremely indolent. They all
have an insatiable passion for gambling, which no
restrictive or prohibitory laws can eradicate.
They are nominally Mohammedans, but have
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