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private entertainments, at a fixed sum for the day ; or they
exhibit before the public in a temporary shed, entirely exposed
in front. On such occasions, instead of cheering the
performers with empty plaudits, the audience throw among
them pieces of copper money: for this pufpose, the Mandarins
brought uS some hundred pieces strung on cords, of the
same kind as those which are current in China. By the
Cochinchinese the regular drama is called Troien, or a relation
of histories. To the operatic interlude of recitative, air
and dancing they give the name of Song-sang; and a grand
chorus accompanied with the gong, the kettle drum, castanets,
trumpets and other noisy instruments, is called the Ring-
rang. The Ambassador had ordered his band to attend on
shore, where they played a few light airs; but the Cochinchinese
had no ear for the soft and harmonious chords of
European music. , Their Ring-rang and their Song-sang were
infinitely superior in their estimation, and were the more
applauded in proportion as they were the iporc noisy i
Leaving the comedians in the midst of their labours, we
walked across the village green, which was also the marketplace,
where we were highly entertained with a variety of
sports and gambols. The fourth of June was for once a day
of general festivity in this part of Coehinchina. In one place
we observed about a dozen young fellows playing at foot-ball
with a bladder; in another, they were displaying their agility
in leaping over an horizontal pole; here a noisy groupe were
amusing themselves in fighting cocks ; there young boys, in
imitation of their elders, were training' quails and other
small birds? and even grasshoppers, to tear each other in