Each member of the family knows how to cook--father, mother, and
children--for there are few dishes to prepare, and the preparation of
these is an art soon acquired. Two meals only are taken each day--one in
the morning and another in the early evening. Between whiles tea is
drunk, tobacco is smoked, and betel-nut is chewed. The hours for meals
are rather irregular, and often the hungry members do not wait for those
whose appetites are less keen, but begin as soon as ever the rice is
boiled. Amongst the rich the men eat first and by themselves. What they
leave serves for their wives and children, and the last remnants of all
are thrown to the dogs.
As dessert there are many kinds of fruit, some of which are unknown in
this country. Amongst the most popular fruits are young coco-nuts; the
ripest of bananas; mangoes, that taste at first like a mixture of
turpentine and carrots, but which, after a few efforts, are found to be
as pleasant to the palate as the apple or the pear; mangosteens--little
sweet snow-white balls set in crimson caskets; durians, that smell like
bad drains, but taste, when one is used to them, like a mixture of
strawberries, ices, honey, and all other things that are pleasant to
eat.
When the meal is over, each person washes his own rice-bowl, and turns
it upside down in a basket in the corner of the room to drip and dry
till it is needed again.
Dress is a very simple matter. There are no such things as fashions. The
smallest children wear no clothing at all, except, perhaps, a necklace
of coral or beads. The garment worn as a covering for the lower part of
the body is the same for all--King and peasant, man, woman, and child.
As seen in pictures and photographs, it resembles a pair of baggy
knickerbockers. It consists of a long strip of coloured cloth, about the
same size and shape as a bath-towel. The method of draping it about the
body is not easily explained on paper. This much, however, may be said:
there are no pins, tapes, buttons, or fastenings of any kind; but the
_panoong_, as it is called, is so cleverly twisted and tied, that it can
be worn at all times and under all circumstances without any fear of it
ever becoming loose. You may run in it, sleep in it, or swim in it, and
you will always be perfectly cool and comfortable. This is the only
native garment for men, though in the capital, and in other places where
white men are seen, the people have learned to wear white linen jackets.
These are buttoned to the throat, and collars and shirts are not
required. Shoes and stockings are not known, except where the European
has taught their use. The soles of the feet get so hard that, in time,
they are like leather itself, and cut or wounded feet are very seldom
seen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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