be denied that their favourite meal is the raw heart and blood of the deer. This latter repast is termed Lor dara, or the feast of the Bloody Heart, which they are said to devour, as among the Battas, in the season when limes and salt are plentiful.
This, however, is viewing them on the worst side of their character, with immediate reference to their conduct in war, and the practices found to prevail among that portion of the population laboring under restrictions on foreign commerce: there are other points of view in which it may be more favorably considered.
The inhabitants of the Wadju districts in particular, are celebrated for their enterprize and intelligence—extending their commercial speculations, with a high character for honorable and fair dealing, from the western shores of Siam to the eastern coast of New Holland. Women, as before observed, take an active part in all public concerns, and are, in no instance, secluded from society, being on a perfect equality with the men. The strongest attachment that is conceivable is felt for ancient customs, and relics of antiquity are held in the highest possible veneration. They are slow and deliberate in their decisions, but these, once formed, are final. Agreements once entered into are invariably observed on their part, and a Bugis is never known to swerve from his bargain. That natural politeness which characterizes the various nations and tribes distinguished by wearing the criss or creese, is no where more forcibly exhibited than among the inhabitants of Celebes. Their minor associations are held together by all the attachment and warmth which have distinguished the clans of North Britain. The same bold spirit of independence and enterprize distinguishes the lower orders; while the pride of ancestry, and the romance of chivalry, are the delight of the higher classes. Attached to the chace as an amusement, rather than as the means of subsistence, the harvest is no sooner reaped, than every feudal chief, with his associates and followers, devotes himself to its pursuits. The population being equally at the command of the feudal lord, whether in time of peace or war, agricultural pursuits, beyond what may procure a bare subsistence, are but little attended to. The usual share of the crop, at the disposal of the chief, is a tithe termed sima; and this, with a few imposts in the bazars, and the services of the people, constitute the revenue of the state.
The languages and literature of the Celebes require a more extended and detailed view than it is possible to take of either on the present occasion. I shall therefore only briefly observe, that the languages prevalent throughout these states appear to have been, at no very remote period, one and the same; but the various revolutions which first raised the power of Goa, and subsequently elevated that of Boni to a still higher importance, have, in separating the
