reported to be able to stupify their victims by using some narcotic known only to themselves. I have no doubt this was done in the case referred to by the agency of the Chinese house-servants, who perhaps introduced the drug into my friend's bed. The Malays have told me of cases, as they averred, where the cunning Chinese thief passes the doorway of the house to be pillaged, and tosses in a handful of rice impregnated with some aromatic drug. This drug soon sends the inmates off into deep repose, from which they seldom awake till long after the robber has finished his undertaking, and that in the complete and deliberate style which suits the taste of the Chinese; for I must tell you that they at all times object to vulgar haste, whatever be the business they are pursuing, and they prefer if possible to avoid sudden surprises and unexpected attacks. The slightest sound will make them take to flight, dropping their booty and their garments, if any, in order to facilitate escape. But when they have a daring robbery on hand they go quite naked, with the body oiled all over and the queue coiled into a knob at the back of the head and stuck full of needles on every side. The following adventure with a Chinese burglar befel an acquaintance of mine. About midnight as he lay awake in bed, with the lamp extinguished and the windows open to admit the air, he saw a dark figure, silhouetted against the sky, clamber over his window rail and enter the apartment. He lay motionless, till the intruder, believing all to be safe, had reached the centre of the room, and then sprang out of bed and seized him; both were powerful men, and a furious struggle ensued, but the robber had the advantage, for his only covering was a coat of oil, so that at last, slipping like an eel from the grasp of his antagonist, he made a plunge at the window and was about to drop over, when his
