FAN-PALM IN THE BOTANICAL GARDEN.
"We visited the museum and the botanical garden, and found them quite interesting. The museum contains the products of Java, arranged so that you can readily see what the resources of the island are; and there are relics of ancient times that throw light upon the history of the country and its people. The botanical garden abounds in tropical plants, and reminded us of the garden at Singapore; but we had not time to make a list of its contents. We saw some fine specimens of a tree that had already attracted our attention at Singapore—the 'fan-palm,' or traveller's fountain, as it is called. It spreads out like a huge fan, with the lower part of the stalks quite bare, while the ends are formed exactly like feathers. A small tree of this species would make a very good fan for a giant, such as we read of in Gulliver's travels.
CHINESE PORTERS.
"In the old part of Batavia we saw so many Chinese that it would not have required a great stretch of the imagination to believe that we were once more in the Flowery Kingdom. In one of the narrowest streets we met a couple of Chinese porters carrying a burden suspended from a pole, the same as we had seen them in Canton and Shanghai, and if it had not been that our driver was very careful we might have run over them. The Chinese are very numerous in Batavia, and all through Java, and a great deal of the commercial business of the country is in their hands. They are engaged in all kinds of trade where money is to be made, and they have the same guilds and commercial associations that they have in Singapore, Hong-kong, and elsewhere. They have their temples and idols just as at home; and though many of them were born in Java, and will probably never see the soil of China, they are as thoroughly Chinese as though they were reared within the walls of Canton.
GODDESS OF SAILORS AND HER ASSISTANTS.
"One of the most common of the Chinese temples is that of the goddess 'Ma-Chu,' who is worshipped by sailors and those having business on the water. She is represented with her two assistants; one of them is called 'Favorable-Wind-Ear,' and the other 'Thousand-Mile-Eye.' The first is supposed to have an ear that can catch the least indication of a wind to favor the sailor; and the latter possesses a clearness of vision that enables him to see a rock or other danger at the distance of a thousand miles. One listens, while the other looks; and between them they are believed able to insure a safe and speedy voyage to all their worshippers."