A pot of rice cooked very dry and eaten with salt and red peppers, twice a day, forms their entire food during a large part of the year.

This is no sign of poverty, but is simply custom; for their wives and children are loaded with silver armlets from wrist to elbow, and carry dozens of silver coins strung round their necks or suspended from their ears.
As I had moved away from Palembang, I had found the Malay spoken by the common people less and less pure, until at length it became quite unintelligible, although the continual recurrence of many well-known words assured me it was a form of Malay, and enabled me to guess at the main subject of conversation.

This district had a very bad reputation a few years ago, and travellers were frequently robbed and murdered.
Fights between village and village were also of frequent occurrence, and many lives were lost, owing to disputes about boundaries or intrigues with women.

Now, however, since the country has been divided into districts under "Controlleurs," who visit every village in turn to hear complaints and settle disputes, such things are heard of no more.

This is one of the numerous examples I have met with of the good effects of the Dutch Government.