Series 03: Joseph Banks - Endeavour journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 (vol. 2) - No. 0595
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[Page 595]
491.
Some account of Batavia
highly seasond with Cayan pepper, they have also many pastry dishes made of Rice flower, & other things I am totaly ignorant of, which are very pleasant fruit, also they eat much of especialy plantanes
[Margin note] Mahomitans
Their feasts are plentifull, & in their way magnificent, tho they consist more of shew than meat, artificial flowers &c. are in profusion & meat plentifull tho of no great variety of dishes, their religion of Mahometanism denies them the use of strong liquors, nor I beleive do they trespas much in that way, having always Tobacco, Betele & opium, to intoxicate themselves, their weddings are carried on with vast form & shew, the families concernd borrowing as many Gold & silver ornaments as possible to adorn the Bride & bride groom, so that their dresses are always costly, the feasts & ceremonies relating to them last in rich mens families a fortnigh or more, all which time the man tho married the first day, is by the women kept from his wife
[Margin note] language
The language spoke among them is intirely Malay or at least so calld, for I beleive it is a most corrupt dialect of that Language, for notwistanding