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.

“The Sumatrans are a well-made people, with yellow complexions, sometimes inclining to white.  They have some of the customs of the South Sea Islanders; amongst others, those barbarous practices of flattening the noses, and compressing the heads of children newly-born, whilst the skull is yet soft or cartilaginous.  They likewise pull out the ears of infants to make them stand at an angle from the head.  They file, blacken, and otherwise disfigure the teeth; and the great men sometimes set theirs in gold, by casing the under row with a plate of that metal.”

GEORGE.  “Is Sumatra a gold country?”

“Why,” said Mr. Wilton, smiling, “have you never heard of the gold of Mount Ophir?  Well, that is the name of the highest mountain in Sumatra.”

GEORGE.  “Then there is gold in Sumatra, and I suppose it is washed down by the rivers.  Is there any other metal there?”