I Also Have A Strip Four Inches Broad Of Three Thicknesses Of
Wadding, Sewn Into The Middle Of The Back Of My Jacket, And Usually
Wear In Addition A Coarse Towel Wrung Out In Water, Folded On The Top
Of My Head, And Hanging Down The Back Of My Neck.
Soon after I came into the salon Mr. Wood, the Puisne Judge, a very
genial, elderly man, called and
Took me to his house, where I found a
very pleasant party, Sir Thomas Sidgreaves, the Chief Justice, Mr.
Maxwell, the Assistant Resident in Perak, Mr. Walker, appointed to the
(acting) command of the Sikh force in Perak, and Mr. Kinnersley, a
Pinang magistrate, with Mr. Isemonger, the police magistrate of the
adjacent Province Wellesley. With an alteration in the names of places
and people, the conversation was just what I have heard in all British
official circles from Prince Edward Island to Singapore, who was likely
to go home on leave, who might get a step, whether the Governor would
return, what new appointments were likely to be created, etc., the
interest in all these matters being intensified by the recent visit of
Sir W. Robinson. It was all pleasant and interesting to me.
This evening the moonlight from the window was entrancingly beautiful,
the shadows of promontory behind promontory lying blackly on the silver
water amidst the scents and silences of the purple night.
As one lands on Pinang one is impressed even before reaching the shore
by the blaze of color in the costumes of the crowds which throng the
jetty. There are over fifteen thousand Klings, Chuliahs, and other
natives of India on the island, and with their handsome but not very
intellectual faces, their Turkey-red turbans and loin-cloths, or the
soft, white muslins in which both men and women drape themselves, each
one might be an artist's model. The Kling women here are beautiful and
exquisitely draped, but the form of the cartilage of the nose and ears
is destroyed by heavy rings. There are many Arabs, too, who are wealthy
merchants and bankers. One of them, Noureddin, is the millionaire of
Pinang, and is said to own landed property here to the extent of
400,000 pounds. There are more than twenty-one thousand Malays on the
island, and though their kampongs are mostly scattered among the palm-
groves, their red sarongs and white bajus are seen in numbers in the
streets; but I have not seen one Malay woman. There are about six
hundred and twelve Europeans in the town and on Pinang, but they make
little show, though their large massive bungalows, under the shade of
great bread-fruit and tamarind-trees, give one the idea of wealth and
solidity.
The sight of the Asiatics who have crowded into Georgetown is a
wonderful one, Chinese, Burmese, Javanese, Arabs, Malays, Sikhs,
Madrassees, Klings, Chuliahs, and Parsees, and still they come in junks
and steamers and strange Arabian craft, and all get a living, depend
slavishly on no one, never lapse into pauperism, retain their own
dress, customs, and religion, and are orderly.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 152 of 229
Words from 79503 to 80022
of 120530
