inflicted at least fifty blows of a ratan. The punishment
took place in the open street, and excited
very little notice among the people.
The wages of a day-labourer at Hué are considered
to be one mas a-day with food, or two without
it. Taking the average price of rice at two
quans, or one Spanish dollar and ten cents per
picul, a day-labourer will earn three piculs a-
month ; and as he consumes only a cattie and a
half a day, his wages are equal to nine times his
consumption of corn. The real value of his food
however, of all descriptions, appears to be reckoned
at one and a half dollar a-month ; so that
there remains an equal sum in money, or a picul
and a half of rice, to supply food and lodging, and
to maintain such part of his family as is unable to
work. The quantity of corn which the wages of
a day-labourer in the town of Calcutta can purchase,
is very little more than one-half of this
amount ; but then he is free to labour on his own
account as many days in the year as he thinks
proper. So high a rate of wages is no doubt occasioned
by the military conscription, which, engaging
one-third of the able-bodied labourers of
the kingdom in the unprofitable service of the
State, impairs the industrious habits of the whole.
This institution* if a great proportion of fertile
land did not exist, and if the toil of cultivating it
were not thrown upon the women, would probably
have produced a high price of com, and this
would not only have arrested the increase of population,
but even caused it to retrograde. The
women in Cochin China perform a large share of
such labpur as, in other countries, belongs to the
male sex only. They plough, harrow, reap, carry
heavy burdens, are shopkeepers, brokers, and money
changers. In most of these cases, they are
considered not only more expert and intelligent
than the men, but what is more extraordinary,
and what I have never heard of in any other
country, their labour is generally of equal value ;
so that, in fact, here there is no distinction in
amount between male and female labour, as in
other parts of the world ; the wasteful idleness
of the public service depreciating the first, and
habits of industry raising the last to an unnatural
equality with it. The observation in Cochin
China is, indeed, frequently made, that the labour
of the women supports the men ; who, on their
side, compelled to toil for the King, have no leisure
to attend to their own affairs, and probably
very little capacity. Under such circumstances, it
is hardly to be supposed that Cochin Chinese husbands
are likely to be much loved or respected.
The women are therefore alleged to prefer strangers
to them, and especially the Chinese ; who, as
their industry is not shackled by the conscription,
or the corvées, exact no heavy labour from them,