Musk, which is one of the chief articles of commerce, is not a product of this country, but a composition of ambergris and the secretion of a species of cat, which gives off an agreeable perfume is used instead. In the forests are plenty of wild animals, but cultivation is carried on by the help of buffaloes and oxen. The rivers teem with fish, some so large that two men can hardly carry one. The poor live on salt fish and rice. Although there is no salt water in the country, they find splendid rubies. Doubtless the foam that covers the fields after the rice harvest supplies the lack of salt for the formation of this precious stone in the bosom of the earth. The Chinese carried on a considerable trade with Laos before the Tartar invasion. They brought velvets, silks, stuffs, carpets, horse-hair, cottons, gold, silver and porcelain which they bartered for ivory, opium and drugs. In the province of Laos from whence the kingdom takes its name, there is a deep mine whence rubies and emeralds are extracted. The King possesses an emerald of the size of an ordinary orange. Commercial relations, if established in this country, would be assuredly fruitful for the reason that the Laosians are the most upright and honest people in the Indo-Chinese peninsula. Not that they desire to possess every curious article of foreign origin they may see, but they prefer to be importunate in their demands for it rather than to attempt to gain possession of it by violence. The greatest praise that can be bestowed upon them is to remark on their fidelity to their pledged word. Robbery and murder are rarely heard of on the main routes, as the townships and villages are held responsible for any insults offered to travellers in the vicinity. Their virtues are not unmixed with vices. By nature incorrigible idlers, they work only when absolutely obliged to. Arduous toil disgusts them, and destitute of perseverence, they cannot fix their attention for long on a single object and never examine anything more than superficially. Unbridled in their desires for the opposite sex, they seem to live merely for reproduction. Sorcery and magic are the sources of many crimes and superstitions, but it is a weakness of the oriental mind never to undertake any important matter before having consulted and paid highly for the services of their duly qualified humbugs. The purity of the air tends to make the people long lived, and although the country is not very large, an army of 500,000 fighting men could easily be raised and it would not be difficult to raise a large force of centenarians, all healthy and vigorous. The inhabitants are less temperate than in other Eastern countries. They take four meals a day. Rice, fish and buffalo meat form their staple articles of diet. They rarely eat veal, beef or poultry. Birds are roasted with their feathers which impart a disagreeable taste to the flesh.