. The golden Chersonese and the way thither. and who sets the example of working with his ownhands, was in a checked shirt, and a common, checked, redsarong. Vulgarity is surely a disease of the West alone,though, as in Japan, one sees that it can be contagious,and this Oriental, far from apologising for his dishabille,led us up the steep and difficidt ladder by which hishouse is entered with as much courteous ease as if heliad been in his splendours. I thoroughly like his house. It is both fitting andtasteful. We stepped from the ladder into a longcoiTidor, well-matted, which led to a doorway
. The golden Chersonese and the way thither. and who sets the example of working with his ownhands, was in a checked shirt, and a common, checked, redsarong. Vulgarity is surely a disease of the West alone,though, as in Japan, one sees that it can be contagious,and this Oriental, far from apologising for his dishabille,led us up the steep and difficidt ladder by which hishouse is entered with as much courteous ease as if heliad been in his splendours. I thoroughly like his house. It is both fitting andtasteful. We stepped from the ladder into a longcoiTidor, well-matted, which led to a doorway with agold-embroidered silk vallance, and a looped-up portiereof wliite-flowered silk or crepe. This was the entranceto a small room very well proportioned, with two similardoorways, curtained with flowered silk, one leading to aroom which we did not see, and the other to a liamboogi-idiron platform, which in the better class of Malayhouses always leads to a smaller house at the back,where cooking and other domestic operations are carried. LETTER XIII, THE DATU BANDARS HOUSE. 203 on, and which seems given up to the women. Therewas a rich, dim light in the room, which was cool andwainscoted entirely with dark red wood, and there wasonly one long, low window, with turned bars of the samewood. There were three handsome cabinets %vith hang-ings of gold and crunson embroidery, and an ebony framecontaining a verse of the Koran in Arabic charactershung over one doorway. In accordance with IMoham-medan prohibitions, there was no decoration which borethe likeness of any created thing, but there were someartistic arabesques under the roof. The furniture,besides the cabinets, consisted of a divan, several ebonychairs, a round table covered with a cool yellow cloth,and a table against the wall draped with crimson silkflowered with gold. The floor was covered with finematting, over which were Oudh rugs in those mixturesof toned down rich colours which are so very and har
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectchinade, bookyear1883
