he hazards on the caprice of chance, and agrees to be at the
mercy, or to become the slave, of his fortunate antagonist.

The Malayan, however, does not always tamely submit to this last
stroke of fortune. When reduced to a state of desperation by
repeated ill-luck, he loosens a certain lock of hair on his head,
which, when flowing down, is a sign of war and destruction. He
swallows opium or some intoxicating liquor, till he works himself
up into a fit of frenzy, and begins to bite and kill everything
that comes in his way; whereupon, as the aforesaid lock of hair
is seen flowing, it is lawful to fire at and destroy him as
quickly as possible--he being considered no better than a mad
dog. A very rational conclusion.

Of course the Chinese are most eager gamesters, or they would not
have been capable of inventing those dear, precious killers of
time--cards, the EVENING solace of so many a household in the
most respectable and `proper' walks of life. Indeed, they play
night and day--until they have lost all they are worth, and then
they usually go--and hang themselves.

If we turn our course northward, and penetrate the regions of ice
perpetual, we find that the driven snow cannot effectually quench
the flames of gambling. They glow amid the regions of the
frozen pole. The Greenlanders gamble with a board, which has a
finger-piece upon it, turning round on an axle; and the person to
whom the finger points on the stopping of the board, which is
whirled round, `sweeps' all the `stakes' that have been
deposited.