Men consider their wives as an inferior race, and sell them when they please. They are shamefully indifferent about their moral character, if they can obtain money by their vices. Women living thus without the encouragement or restraint of public opinion, and without the sweet reward of domestic esteem and confidence, are generally vicious, wherever there is the least temptation to be so. There are, however, severe laws, which are enforced when husbands think proper to appeal to them. Sometimes an unfaithful wife is trampled to death by elephants, and sometimes both of the offending parties are tied together and thrown into the river. The women are dark and coarse featured, with blackened teeth, and small pretensions to beauty; but there is something pleasing in their perpetual cheerfulness and lively good-nature. They take great pride in long hair, considering the reverse as a token of degeneracy, and a mark of vulgarity. The Cochin Chinese have dramatic performances, in which female actors are introduced. Their voices, when singing, are said to be shrill and warbling, and their dancing full of graceful gestures and attitudes. Men and women of the common class dress nearly alike. Both wear a brown or blue frock, with black nankeen trowsers, made very wide. They have neither stockings nor shoes. The women wear their long hair sometimes twisted on the top of the head, and sometimes hanging in loose flowing tresses. To shield them from the sun they have broad hats, like an inverted saucer, woven with the fibres of bamboo, and made impervious to water by means of a fine varnish. These hats are fastened under the chin by a slender wooden bow, like the handle of a pail; the rich have it made of ivory, ebony, silver, or gold. The higher classes dress very much like the wealthy Chinese. Both ladies and gentlemen, when they go abroad, have attendants to carry their fans, and a box made of fragrant wood, often inlaid with gold and silver, to contain their areca, betel, &c. Garments are seldom changed till they begin to fall in pieces, and their habits are in general so uncleanly that a near approach to them is not pleasant. The Siamese are a tawny people, with short black hair, which both sexes cut quite short. They have faces broad in the middle, and narrowing toward the forehead and the chin. Their ears are naturally large; and, like many other nations in the torrid zone, they weigh them down with heavy ornaments, so that one might thrust several fingers through the distended apertures. Long nails, particularly on the right hand, are considered a mark of gentility. They often attain a growth of several inches; and when women wish to be particularly elegant, they wear artificial ones four inches long.