ACCOUNT OF JAVA AND BATAVIA.
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forenoon In playing and toying with their female flaves, whom they are never without,and in laughing and talking with them, while a few moments afterwards they willhave the poor ci-eatures whipped moft unmercifully for the mereft trifle. They loll,in a loofe and airy drefs, upon a fofa, or fit upon a low ftool, or upon the ground,with their legs eroded under them. In the mean time, they do not omit the chewingof pinang, or betel, with which cuftom all the Indian women are infatuated: theylikewife mafticate the Java tobacco ; this makes their fpittle of a crimfon colour, andwhen they have done it long they get a black border along their lips, their teethbecome black, and their mouths are very difagreeable, though it is pretended that thisufe purifies the mouth, and preferves from the tooth-ache.
As the Indian women are really not deficient in powers of underflanding, they wouldbecome very ufeful members of fociety, endearing wives, and good mothers, if theywere but kept from familiarity with the flaves in their infancy,.and educated under theimmediate eye of their parents, who Ihould be affiduous to inculcate, in their tenderminds, the principles of true morality, and polilhed manners. But alas 1 the parentsare far from taking fuch a burthenfome talk upon themfelves. As foon as the childis born, they abandon it to the care of a female flave, who generally fuckles it ; andby whom it is reared till it attains the age of nine or ten years. Thefe nurfes are oftenbut one remove above a brute, in point of intelleft; and the little innocents imbibewith their milk all the prejudices and fuperftitious notions which difgrace the minds oftheir attendants, and which are never eradicated during the remainder of their lives,but feetn to ftamp them, rather with the chara&er of the progeny of defpicable flaves,.than of a civilized race of beings.
They are remarkably fond of bathing and ablutions, and they make ufe of a large tubfor this purpofe, which holds three hoglheads of water, and in which they immergetheir whole body, at leaft twice a week. Some of them do this, in the morning, inone of the running dreams out of the city.
In common with moft of the women in India they cherifh a moft excefiive jealoufyof their hufbands, and of their female flaves. If they dilcover the fmalleft familiaritybetween them, they fet no bounds to their thirft of revenge againft thefe poor bondf-women, who in moft cafes have not dared to refill the will of their mailers, for fearof ill-treatment.
They torture thdin in various ways; they have them whipped with rods, and beatwith rattans, till they fink down before them, nearly exhaufted : among other methodsof tormenting them, they make the poor girls fit before them in fuch a pofture thatthey can pinch them with their toes in a certain fenfible part, which is the peculiarobject of their vengeance, with fuch cruel ingenuity, that they faint away by theexcefs of pain.
I lhall refrain from the recital of inftances, which I- have heard of the moft refinedcruelty practifed upon thefe wretched victims of,jealoufy,. by Indian women, and whichhave been related to me by witnefles worthy of belief; they are too repugnant toevery feeling of humanity, and furpafs the ufual bounds of credibility.
Having thus fatiated their anger upon their flaves, their next objetl is to take equalrevenge upon their hufbands, which they do in a manner lefs cruel, and more pleafant'to themfelves.
The warmth of the climate, which influences ftrGngly upon their conftitutions, to-gether with the dilfolute lives of the men before marriage, are the caufes of muchwantonnefs and diflipation among the women.
j Marriages