the truth.]

I went to see the jail, a tolerable building--a barred cage below, and
a long room above--standing in a graveled courtyard, surrounded by a
high wall. Formerly there were no prisons, and criminals were punished
on the spot, either by being krissed, shot, or flogged. Here they have
a liberal diet of rice and salt fish, and "hard labor" is only mild
work on the roads. The prisoners, forty-two adult men, were drawn up in
a row, and Mr. Syers called the roll, telling the crime of each man,
and his conduct in prison; and most of those who had conducted
themselves well were to be recommended to the Sultan for remission of
part of their sentences. "Flog them if they are lazy," the Resident
often said; but Mr. Syers says that he never punishes them except under
aggravated circumstances. The prisoners are nearly all Chinamen, and
their crimes are mostly murder, gang-robbery, assault, and theft.
About half of them were in chains. There is an unusual mortality in the
prison, attributed, though possibly not _attributable_, to the enforced
disuse of opium. We went also to the hospital, mainly used by the
police, a long airy shed, with a broad shelf on each side. Mr. Klyne,
the apothecary, a half-caste, has a good many Malay dispensary
patients.

On our return, four Malay women, including the Imaum's wife, came to
see me. Each one would have made a picturesque picture, but they had no
manners, and seized on my hands, which are coarsened, reddened, and
swelled from heat and mosquito bites, all exclaiming, "chanti!
chanti!"--pretty! pretty! I wondered at their bad taste, specially as
they had very small and pretty hands themselves, with almond-shaped
nails.