MRS. WILTON. "The Javanese are remarkable for their veracity and love of music: their ear is so delicate, that they readily learn to play the most difficult and complex airs on any instrument. They are remarkable also for their superstition, and people their forests, caves, and mountains with numerous invisible beings of their own creation. I will quote two instances of whimsical superstition, which took place in Java about thirty years ago. The skull of a buffalo was conducted from one end of the island to the other; this skull was to be kept in constant motion, for a dreadful fate was to await the individual who detained it in his possession, or allowed it to rest. After travelling many hundred miles, it reached Samarang, where the Dutch governor caused it to be thrown into the sea. No person could tell how this originated; but no person refused to obey while the skull was on _terra firma_. Again, in 1814, a smooth road, fifty or sixty miles long, and twenty feet broad, leading to the top of an inland mountain, called Sumbong, was suddenly formed, crossing no rivers, but passing in an undeviating line through private property of all descriptions. The population of whole districts was employed in the labor, and all because an old woman dreamed that a divine personage was to descend on the mountain!" "Oh! how very ridiculous!" exclaimed Charles. "Such silly people deserve to be imposed upon, for not using the faculties they possess, to greater advantage." GRANDY. "When once superstition usurps the throne of reason, Charles, it is a difficult task to displace her. There are so many pleasing fallacies connected with her sway over the naturally indolent mind of man, that reason is altogether banished, and superstition's authority knows no bounds." MR. STANLEY. "Java produces, in great abundance, the _Hirundo esculenta_, a species of swallow, whose nests are used as an article of luxurious food among the Chinese. This nest has the shape of a common swallow's nest, and the appearance of ill-connected isinglass. The bird always builds in the caves of the rocks, at a distance from any human dwelling. Along the sea-shore, these nests are particularly abundant, the caverns there being more frequent. The finest are those obtained before the nest has been contaminated by young birds. Some of the caverns are very difficult of access, and dangerous to climb; so that none can collect the nests but persons accustomed to the trade from their youth." GEORGE. "Oh, yes! I remember all the particulars of that business; we were told at one of our meetings; but I do not care to taste them: it is both nasty and cruel to eat bird's-nests." CHARLES. "Sumatra is, next to Borneo, the largest island in the Eastern seas. It is situated in the midst of the torrid zone, is upwards of 1000 miles long, nearly 200 in breadth, and is divided from Java by the Straits of Sunda.