The heat to be endured by the men during this operation is very great, and can only be tolerated when custom has inured them to it. One of these men, Mr. Little graphically describes. He was quite a character in his way. “From three in the morning till ten in the forenoon he stands before the boiling cauldron, with a fan in one hand, and a feather in the other; with the latter he scoops off the scum that forms, while, with the fan, he prevents the fluid from boiling over. He never speaks, but is always smiling; nor does he move, except to quench his thirst, from a bucket of water placed beside him. His trowsers are his only article of dress, the floor his bed, a little rice his food. When his labour is finished, his enjoyment is to drink arrack till he is insensible, from which he is wakened in the morning to his work. He has but one idea, and that is, the prospect of getting drunk on his favourite beverage; for his work is mechanically done, and costs him not a thought, no more than it does the dog that turns the spit. But he smiles, as he thinks of the revel for the night; and with his whole soul wrapped up in that fancied bliss, he heeds not the days that go by. He is a singular being, and in another country, would be the inmate of a mad-house.” The method of preparation in China and Hong-Kong, is identical with that pursued at Singapore. When the chandu or prepared extract of opium is consumed, it leaves a refuse consisting of charcoal, empyreumatic oil, some of the salts of the opium, and part of the chandu not consumed. One ounce of the chandu gives nearly half an ounce of the refuse called _Tye_ or _Tinco_. This is smoked or swallowed by the poorer classes, who cannot afford the pure extract, and for this they only pay half the price of chandu. When smoked, it yields a further refuse called _Samshing_, which contains a very small quantity of the narcotic principle. This last is never smoked, as it cannot furnish any smoke, but is swallowed, and that not unfrequently mixed with arrack. Samshing is used by the very poorest and most indigent class—by beggars and outcasts, and those who, from long habit, are unable to exist without some stimulus from the drug, but are unable to supply themselves with any but the cheapest form in which any of the effects of the narcotic can be obtained. Opium is called in Arabic “Afiyoon,” and the opium-eater “Afiyoonee.” In the crude state, opium is generally taken by those who have not long been addicted to its use, in the dose of three or four grains, and the dose is increased by degrees.