Almost All Business Is Transacted In
The Morning Between The Hours Of Seven And Twelve, The Afternoon
Being Given Up To Repose, And The Evening To Visiting.
When in
the house during the heat of the day, and even at dinner, they
use a loose cotton dress, only putting on a suit of thin
European-made clothes for out of doors and evening wear.
They
often walk about after sunset bareheaded, reserving the black hat
for visits of ceremony. Life is thus made far more agreeable, and
the fatigue and discomfort incident to the climate greatly
diminished. Christmas day is not made much of, but on New Year's
day official and complimentary visits are paid, and about sunset
we went to the Governor's, where a large party of ladies and
gentlemen were assembled. Tea and coffee were handed around, as is
almost universal during a visit, as well as cigars, for on no
occasion is smoking prohibited in Dutch colonies, cigars being
generally lighted before the cloth is withdrawn at dinner, even
though half the company are ladies. I here saw for the first time
the rare black lory from New Guinea, Chalcopsitta atra. The
plumage is rather glossy, and slightly tinged with yellowish and
purple, the bill and feet being entirely black.
The native Amboynese who reside in the city are a strange half-
civilized, half-savage lazy people, who seem to be a mixture of at
least three races - Portuguese, Malay, and Papuan or Ceramese,
with an occasional cross of Chinese or Dutch.
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