which is enricht with the inflexions of words like the Languages we have in Europe The terms of Religion and Justice the names of Offices and all the Ornaments of the Vulgar Tongue are borrow'd from the Balie In this Language they compose their best Songs so that it seems at least that some Foreign Colony had formerly inhabited the Countrey of Siam and had carry'd thither a second Language But this is a Dispute that might be rais'd concerning all the Countries of India for like Siam they all have two Languages one of which is still remaining only in their Books The Siameses assert that their Laws are Foreign What the Siameses report concerning the Origine of their Laws and Religion and came to them from the Countrey of Laos which has perhaps no other Foundation than the Conformity of the Laws of Laos with those of Siam even as there is a Conformity between the Religions of these two Nations and with that of the Peguins Now this does not strictly prove that any of these three Kingdoms hath given its Laws and its Religion to the rest seeing that it may happen that all the three may have deriv'd their Religion and their Laws from another common Source However it be as the Tradition is at Siam that their Laws and Kings came from Laos the same Tradition runs at Laos that their Kings and most of their Laws came from Siam Of the Balie Language The Siameses speak not of any Country where the Balie Language which is that of their Laws and their Religion is now in use They suspect indeed according to the report of some amongst them which have been at the Coast of Coromandel that the Balie Language has some similitude with some one of the Dialects of that Country but they agree at the same time that the Letters of the Balie Language are known only amongst them The secular Missionaries established at Siam are of opinion that this Language is not entirely extinct by reason they saw in their Hospital a man come from about the Cape of Comorin who interspers'd several Balie words in his discourse affirming that they were used in his Country and that he had never studied and knew only his Mother Tongue They moreover averr for truth that the Religion of the Siumeses came from those Quarters because that they have read in a Balie Book that Sommona-Codom whom the Siameses adore was the Son of a King of the Island of Ceylon The Siameses resemble their Neighbours But setting aside all these uncertainties the vulgar Language of the Siameses like in its Simplicity to those of China Tonquin Cochinchina and the other States of the East sufficiently evinces that those who speak it are near of the same Genius with their Neighbours Add hereunto their Indian Figure the colour of their Complexion mixt with red and brown which corresponds neither to the North of Asia Europe nor Africk Add likewise their short Nose rounded at the end as their Neighbours generally have it the upper Bone of their Cheeks high and raised their Eyes slit a little upwards their Ears larger than ours in a word all the Lineaments of the Indian and Chinese Physiognomy their Countenance naturally squeez'd and bent like that of Apes and a great many other things which they have in common with these Animals as well as a marvellous passion for Children For nothing is equal to the Tenderness which the great Apes expressed to their Cubs except the Love which the Siameses have for all Children whether for their own or those of another The King of Siam loves Children till 7 or 8 years old The King of Siam himself is incompass'd with them and delights to educate them till seven or eight years old after which as they lose the childish Air they do also lose his Favour One alone say some was there kept till between twenty and thirty years of Age and is still his favourite Some do call him his adopted Son others suspect him to be his Bastard He is at least Foster Brother to his Lawful Daughter That the Siameses came not from far to Inhabit their Country But if you consider the extreamly Low Lands of Siam that they seem to escape the Sea as it were by miracle and that they lye annually under rain water for several Months the almost infinite number of very incommodious Insects which they engender and the excessive Heat of the Climate under which they are seated it is difficult to comprehend that others could resolve to inhabit them excepting such as came thither by little and little from places adjacent And it may be thought that they have been inhabited not many Ages if a Judgment may be made thereof by the few Woods that are stubbed as yet Moreover it would be necessary to travel more to the North of Siam to find out the warlike People which could yield those innumerable swarms of men which departed out of their own Country to go and possess others And how is it possible that they should not be stopp'd on the Road among some of those soft and effeminate People which lye between the Country of the Scythians and the Woods and impassable Rivers of the Siameses 'T is not therefore probable that the Lesser Siameses which we have spoken of are descended from the Greater and that the Greater withdrew into the Mountains which they inhabit to free themselves from the Tyranny of the neighbouring Princes under which they were born Three Baly Alphabets Kià Keù̈ Keuà Koù̈a Koüà Ké Kê Ko Kaou Koum Kam Karama Ko Koüaà Keua reu reû leu leû Ca Kha Kha go nga Tcha Tcha Tcha Tcha ya thá tha da na Ta tha tâ—a da na pa ppa da me Ca ra la ua ta ha la ang Ka Kaa Ki Ku Kou Koû Ke Kái Ko Káon KamÌ€ Ká Ka-na Ka nâ Kad-ni Kard Kanou Kanou Ka-ne Kanai Ka na Ka naoÅ„ Kananǵ Ka-na The Siamese Cyphers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 The Siamese numeral Names 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 20 30 A Smoaking Instrument which the Modâ—â— of Siamâ—do use AA a Pipe of Bambou 8 or 9 footlong The Chinese-Chese-Boord 1 The King 2 The Guards 3 The Elephants 4 The Knights 5 The Waggons 6 The Canons 7 The Pawns 8 The River A Musical Instrument w th Bells The Chinese Abacus or Arithmetical Instrume nt or Counting They inhabit different quarters in the City or Suburbs of Siam The people of the Kingdom of Siam not very numerous and yet this City is very little inhabited in respect to its Bigness and the Country much less in Proportion It must be imagined that they desire not a greater People for they count them every year and do well know what no person ignores that the only secret to encrease them would be to ease them in the Taxes and Impositions The Siameses do therefore keep an exact account
only of a double Cloth put into the form of a Cup and cover'd over with this Gum mixt with a colour which we call Lacca or Chinese Varnish as I have already declar'd these Cups last not long when too hot Liquors are put therein The Marin-gouins To return to the Insects which we have begun occasionally to speak of the Marin-gouins are of the same Nature as our Gnats but the heat of the Climat gives them so much strength that shamois Stockings defend not our Legs against their Stings Nevertheless it seems possible to know how to deal with them for the Natives of the Country and the Europeans that have inhabited there for several years were not so marked with them as we were The Millepede The Millepede or Palmer is known at Siam as in the Isles of America This little Reptile is so called because it has a great number of feet along its body all very short in proportion to its length which is about five or six Inches What it has most singular besides the scales in form of rings which cover its body and which insert themselves one into the other in its motions is that it pinches equally with its head and tail but its Stings tho' painful are not mortal A French Man of that Crew which went to Siam with us and whom we left there in perfect health suffer'd himself to be stung in his Bed above a quarter of an hour without daring to lay hold on the Worm to relieve himself The Siameses report that the Millepede has two heads at the extremities of its body and that it guides itself six months in the year with the one and six months with the other The Ignorance of the Siameses in things Natural But their History of Animals must not easily be credited they understand not Bodies better than Souls and in all matters their inclination is to imagine Wonders and persuade themselves so much the more easily to believe them as they are more incredible What they report of a sort of Lizard named Toc-quay proceeds from an Ignorance and Credulity very singular They imagine that this Animal feeling his Liver grow too big makes the Cry which has impos'd on him the name of Toc-quay to call another Insect to its succor and that this other Insect entering into his Body at his mouth eats the overplus of the Liver and after this repast retires out of the Toc-quay's body by the same way that he enter'd therein Shining Flyes The shining Flyes like Locusts have four wings which do all appear when the Fly takes a flight but the two thinnest of them are concealed under the strongest when the Fly is at repose We hardly saw these little Animals by reason that the rainy time was past when we landed The North-winds which begin when the Rains cease either kill them or drive them all away They have some light in their Eyes but their greatest splendor proceeds from under their wings and glitters only in the Air when the wings are display'd What some report therefore is not true that they might be us'd in the Night instead of Candles for tho' they had light enough what method could be contriv'd to make them always flie and keep them at a due distance to illuminate But thus much may suffice to be spoken concerning the Insects of Siam they would afford matter for large Volumes to know them all I shall say only that there are not fewer in the River and Gulph Insects in the waters than on the Land and that in the River there are some very dangerous which is the reason that the rich Men do bathe themselves only in houses of Bambou CHAP. VII Of the Grain of Siam RICE is the principal Harvest of the Siameses and their best Nourishment Rice it refreshes and fattens And we found our Ship 's Crew express some regret when after a three months allowance thereof they were return'd to Bisket and yet the Bisket was very good and well kept The Siameses know by experience how to measure the water The way of boiling it in pure water fire and time necessary to the Rice without bursting the Grain and so it serves them for Bread Not that they mix it with all their other Food as we do Bread when they eat Flesh or Fish for example they eat the one and the other without Rice and when they eat Rice they eat it separately They squeeze it a little between the ends of their Fingers to reduce it into a Paste and so they put it into their mouth as our Poor do eat Pottage The Chineses do never touch any meat but with two small Sticks squar'd at the end which do serve them instead of a Fork They hold to their lower Lip a small Porcelane or China Cup wherein is their portion of Rice and holding it steady with their left hand they strike the Rice into their mouth with the two Sticks which they hold in their right hand The Levantines or Eastern People Or in milk do sometimes boil Rice with Flesh and Pepper and then put some Saffron thereunto and this Dish they call Pilau This is not the practice of the Siameses but generally they boil the Rice in clear water as I have said and sometimes they boil it with milk as we do on fasting days At Siam in the Lands high enough to avoid the Inundation Wheat there grows Wheat they water them either with watering Pots like those in our Gardens or by overflowing it with the Rain-water which they keep in Cisterns much higher than these Lands But either by reason of the Care or Expence or that the Rice suffices for common use the King of Siam only has Wheat and perhaps more out of Curiosity than a real Gusto They call it Kaou Possali and the word Kaou simply signifieth Rice Now these terms being neither Arabian nor Turkish nor Persian I doubt of what was told me that Wheat was brought to Siam by the Moors The French which are setled there do import Meal from Surrat altho' near Siam there is a Windmil to grind Corn and another near Louvo In a word the Bread which the King of Siam gave us was so dry Wheaten Bread too dry at Siam that the Rice boil'd in pure water how insipid soever was more agreeable to me I less wonder therefore at what the Relations of China report that the Soveraign of this great Kingdom altho' he has Bread does rather prefer Rice yet some Europeans assur'd me that the wheaten Bread of Siam is good and that the driness of ours must proceed from a little Rice-flower which is doubtless mixt with the Wheat for fear perhaps lest the Bread should fail At Siam I have seen Pease different from ours The Siameses like us Other Grain do make more than one Crop but they make only one in a year upon the same Land not that the Soil was not good enough in my
other does greatly illustrate them I hope also that a pardon will be granted me for the Siamese names which I relate and explain These remarks will make other relations intelligible as well as mine which without these Illustrations might sometimes cause a doubt concerning what I assert In a word those with whom I am acquainted do know that I love the Truth but it is not sufficient to give a sincere relation to make it appear true 'T is requisite to add clearness to sincerity and to be thoroughly inform'd of that wherein we undertake to instruct others I have therefore considered interrogated and penetrated as far as it was possible and to render my self more capable of doing it I carefully read over before my arrival at Siam several Antient and Modern Relations of divers Countreys of the East So that in my opinion this preparation has supplied the defect of a longer residence and has made me to remark and understand in the three Months I was at Siam what I could not perhaps have understood or remark'd in three Years without the assistance and perusal of those Discourses A MAPP of the KINGDOME of SIAM PART I. Of the Country of Siam CHAP. I. The Geographical Description NAvigation has sufficiently made known the Sea Coasts of the Kingdom of Siam and many Authors have described them How much this Kingdom is unknown but they know almost nothing of the Inland Country because the Siameses have not made a Map of their Country or at least know how to keep it secret That which I here present is the work of an European who went up the Menam the principal River of the Country to the Frontiers of the Kingdom but was not skilful enough to give all the Positions with an entire exactness Besides he has not seen all and therefore I thought it necessary to give his Map to Mr. Cassini Director of the Observatory at Paris to correct it by some Memorials which were given me at Siam Nevertheless I know it to be still defective but yet it fails not to give some notices of this Kingdom which were never heard of and of being more exact in those we already have Its Frontiers extend Northward to the 22d. Degree or thereabouts Its Frontiers Northward and the Road which terminates the Gulph of Siam being almost at the Latitude of 13 degrees and a half it follows that this whole extent of which we hardly have any knowledge runs about 170 Leagues in a direct Line reckoning 20 Leagues to a degree of Latitude after the manner of our Seamen The Siameses do say that the City of Chiamai is fifteen days journey more to the North than the Frontiers of their Kingdom that is to say at most The City of Chiamai and its Lake between sixty and seventy Leagues for they are Journeys by water and against the Stream 'T is about thirty years since their King as they report took this City and abandon'd it after having carried away all the People and it has been since repeopled by the King of Ava to whom Pegu does at present render Obedience But the Siameses which were at that expedition do not know that famous Lake from whence our Geographers make the River Menam arise and to which according to them this City gives its Names which makes me to think either that it is more distant than our Geographers have conceived or that there is no such Lake It may also happen that this City adjoyning to several Kingdoms and being more subject than another to be ruined by War has not always been rebuilt in the same place And this is not difficult to imagine of the Cities which are built only with wood as all in these Countreys are and which in their destruction leave not any Ruines nor Foundations However it may be doubted whether the Menam springs from a Lake by reason it is so small at its entrance into the Kingdom of Siam that for about fifty Leagues it carries only little Boats capable of holding no more than four or five Persons at most The Kingdom of Siam is bounded from the East to the North by high Mountains which separate it from the Kingdom of Laos The Country of Siam is only a Valley and on the North and West by others which divide it from the Kingdoms of Pegu and Ava This double Chain of Mountains inhabited by a few savage and poor but yet free People whose Life is innocent leaves between them a great Valley containing in some places between fourscore and an hundred Leagues in bredth and is watered from the City of Chiamai to the Sea that is to say from the North to the South with an excellent River which the Siameses call Me-nam or Mother-water to signifie a great water which being encreased by the Brooks and Rivers it receives on every side from the Mountains I have mentioned discharges it self at last into the Gulph of Siam by three months the most navigable of which is that toward the East Cities seated on the River On this River and about seven Miles from the Sea is seated the City of Bancok and I shall transiently declare that the Siameses have very few habitations on their Coasts which are not far distant from thence but are almost all seated on Rivers navigable enough to afford them the Commerce of the Sea As to the names of most of these places which for this reason may be called Maritime they are disguised by Foreigners Thus the City of Bancok is called Fon in Siamese it not being known from whence the name of Bancok is derived altho there be several Siamese Names that begin with the word Ban which signifies a Village The Gardens of Bancok The Gardens which are in the Territory of Bancok for the space of four Leagues in ascending towards the City of Siam to a place named Talacoan do supply this City with the Nourishment which the Natives of the Country love best I mean a great quantity of Fruit. Other Cities on the Menam The other principal places which the Menam waters are Me-Tac the first City of the Kingdom to the North North-West and then successively Tian-Tong Campeng pet or Campeng simple which some do pronounce Campingue Laconcevan Tchainat Siam Talacoan Talaqueou and Bancok Between the two Cities of Tchainat and Siam and at a distance which the Maeanders of the River do render almost equal from each other the River leaves the City of Louvo a little to the East at the 14 d. 42 m. 32 S. of Latitude according to the observations which the Jesuites have published The King of Siam does there spend the greatest part of the year the more commodiously to enjoy the diversion of Hunting but Louvo would not be habitable were it not for a channel cut from the River to water it The City of Me-Tac renders obedience to an Hereditary Lord who they say is a Vassal to the King of Siam whom some call Paya-Tac
this Author who seems to rely too much on his memory we may believe what he says that the Elephants of the King of Pegu who then besieged the City of Siam did so nearly approach the Walls as with their Trunks to beat down the Palisado's which the Siameses had there placed to cover themselves It s Latitude according to Father Thomas the Jesuit is 14 d. 20 m. 40 S. and its Longitude 120 d. 30 m. It has almost the figure of a Purse the mouth of which is to the East and the bottom to the West The River meets it at the North by several Channels which run into that which environs it and leaves it on the South by separating itself again into several streams The King's Palace stands to the North on the Canal which embraces the City and by turning to the East there is a Causey by which alone as by an Isthmus People may go out of the City without crossing the water The City is spacious considering the Circuit of its Walls which as I have said incloses the whole Isle but scarce the sixth part thereof is inhabited and that to the South-East only The rest lies desart where the Temples only stand 'T is true that the Suburbs which are possessed by strangers do considerably increase the number of the People The streets thereof are large and strait and in some places planted with Trees and paved with Bricks laid edgewise The Houses are low and built with Wood at least those belonging to the Natives who for these Reasons are exposed to all the Inconveniences of the excessive heat Most of the streets are watered with strait Canals which have made Siam to be compar'd to Venice and on which are a great many small Bridges of Hurdles and some of Brick very high and ugly Its Names The Name of Siam is unknown to the Siamese 'T is one of those words which the Portugues of the Indies do use and of which it is very difficult to discover the Original They use it as the Name of the Nation and not of the Kingdom And the Names of Pegu Lao Mogul and most of the Names which we give to the Indian Kingdoms are likewise National Names so that to speak rightly we must say the King of the Peguins Laos Moguls Siams as our Ancestors said the King of the Franc's In a word those that understand Portuguese do well know that according to their Orthography Siam and Siaom are the same thing and that by the Similitude of our Language to theirs we ought to say the Sions and not the Siams so when they write in Latin they call them Siones The true Name of the Siameses signifies Francs A Map of the Citty of SIAM A. The Citty B. The Pallace C. The Port D. the Arsenall for the Ships E. the Arsenall for the Ballons Galleys F. The Street of the Bazars G. The Seminary H. The Portuguese Iacobins I. The Portuguese Iesuites K. The Dutch Factory L. The Inclosur where the Elephants are taken M. A House begun for the French Ambassadors 800 French Toises The Bambou Tree The Arvore de Raiz A Map of Bancock A Vessell of filigran A Plaugh The Arc Kier As for the City of Siam the Siameses do call it Si-yo-thi-ya the o of the Syllable yo being closer than our Dipthong an Sometimes also they call it Crung the-papra maha nacon But most of these words are difficult to understand because they are taken from this Baly Language which I have already declared to be the learned Language of the Siameses and which they themselves do not always perfectly understand I have already remark'd what I know concerning the word Pra that of Maha signifies Great Thus in speaking of their King they stile him Pra Maha Crassat and the word Crassat according to their report signifies living and because the Portugues have thought that Pra signifies God they imagin that the Siameses called their King The great living God From Si-yo-thi ya the Siamese Name of the City of Siam Foreigners have made Judia and Odiaa by which it appears that Vincent le Blanc and some other Authors do very ill distinguish Odiaa from Siam In a word the Siameses of whom I treat do call themselves Tai Noe Two different People called Siameses little Siams There are others as I was informed altogether savage which are called Tai yai great Siams and which do live in the Northern Mountains In several Relations of these Countries I find a Kingdom of Siammon or Siami but all do not agree that the People thereof are savage In fine the Mountains which lie on the common Frontiers of Ava Other Mountains and other Frontiers Pegu and Siam gradually decreasing as they extend to the South do form the Peninsula of India extra Gangem which terminating at the City of Sincapura separates the Gulphs of Siam and Bengala and which with the Island of Sumatra forms the famous Strait of Malaca or Sincapura Several Rivers do fall from every part of these Mountains into the Gulphs of Siam and Bengala and render these Coasts habitable The other Mountains which rise between the Kingdom of Siam and Laos and extend themselves also towards the South do run gradually decreasing till they terminate at the Cape of Camboya the most Eastern of all those in the Continent of Asia toward the South 'T is about the Latitude of this Cape that the Gulph of Siam begins and the Kingdom of this Name extends a great way towards the South in form of an Horseshoe on either side of the Gulph viz. along the Eastern Coast to the River Chantebon where the Kingdom of Camboya begins and opposite thereunto viz. in the Peninsula extra Gangem which lies on the West of the Gulph of Siam it extends to Queda and Patana the Territories of the Malayans of which Malaca was formerly the Metropolis After this manner it runs about 200 Leagues on the side toward the Gulph of Siam and 180 or thereabouts on the Gulph of Bengal The Coasts of Siam an advantageous situation which opens unto the Natives of the Countrey the Navigation on all these vast Eastern Seas Add that as Nature has refus'd all manner of Ports and Roads to the Coast of Coromandel which forms the Gulph of Bengal to the West it has therewith enrich'd that of Siam which is opposite to it and which is on the East of the same Gulph A great number of Isles do cover it Isles of Siam in the Gulph of Bengal and render it almost everywhere a safe Harbor for Ships besides that most of these Isles have very excellent Ports and abundance of fresh water and wood an invitation for new Colonies The King of Siam affects to be called Lord thereof altho' his People who are very thin in the firm Land have never inhabited them and he has not strength enough at Sea to prohibit or hinder the enterance thereof to strangers The City of Merguy
have often said that the Indians do own the distinction of good or bad Works it is necessary to set down the Principles of of their Morality CHAP. XXI Of the Principles of the Indian Morals Five Negative Precepts THey are reduced to five Negative Precepts very near the same in all the Cantons of the Indies Those of the Siameses are such as follow 1. Kill nothing 2. Steal nothing 3. Commit not any impurity 4. Lye not 5. Drink no intoxicating Liquor which in general they call Laou The first Precept extends to Plants and Seeds The first Precept is not limited to the Killing either Men or Animals but it extends to Plants and to Seeds because that by a very probable Opinion they believe that the Seed is only the Plant it self in a Cover The Man therefore observing this Precept as they understand it can live only on Fruit forasmuch as they consider the Fruit not as a thing which has Life but as a part of a thing which has Life and which suffers not though its Fruit be pluck'd In eating the Fruit it is necessary only not to eat the Kernel nor Stone because they are Seeds and it is necessary not to eat Fruit out of season that is to say in my opinion before the Season because that it is to make the Seed which the Fruit contains abortive by hindering it from ripening And to the not destroying any thing in Nature Besides this the Precept of not killing extends to the not destroying any thing in Nature by reason they think that every thing is animated or if you will that there are Souls every where and that to destroy any thing whatever is forceably to dispossess a Soul They will not for instance break a Branch of a Tree as they will not break the Arm of an innocent Person They believe that it is to offend the Soul of the Tree But when once the Soul has been expelled out of a body they look upon this as a Destruction already wrought and think nothing to be destroyed in nourishing themselves with this Body The Talapoins make not any scruple of eating what is dead but of killing what they think alive In several things they do more abhor Blood than Murder In several things they testify a greater Abhorrence of Blood than of Murder It is prohibited them to make any Incision from whence there gushes out Blood as if the Soul was principally in the Blood or that it was only the Blood And this perhaps is a confused remembrance of the ancient Command of God who permitting unto man the use of Meats prohibited him from eating the Blood of the Animals because that the Blood supplys in them the place of the Soul There are some Indians which dare not to cut a certain Plant because there comes out a red Juice which they take for the Blood of this Plant. The Siameses do scruple to go a fishing only on the days when the Talapoins shave their Head This done it seems to them that when they fish they commit no Crime by reason they think not themselves guilty of the Death of the Fishes They say they only pull them out of the Water and shed not their Blood The least evasion sufficeth them to elude the Precepts Thus they think not to sin by killing in War because they shoot not direct at the Enemy though at the bottom they endeavour to kill as I have already explained it discoursing of their manner of fighting But if any one tells them that according to the opinion of the Metempsychosis The Opinion of the Metempsychosis favourable to the Murder of the unhappy if it renders not all Murder indifferent Murder oftentimes appears laudable seeing that it may deliver a Soul from a miserable Life They answer that forceably to dispossess Souls is always to offend them and that moreover they are not relieved because they re enter into the like Bodies there to fill up the rest of the time during which they are designed for this sort of Life But they consider not that this reason would also prove that they did no real Injury in killing and the Chineses who in this do think otherwise than the Siameses do kill their Children when they have too many and they alledge that it is to make them spring up more happy To kill themselves appears to them a very laudable thing Moreover all the Indians do think that to kill themselves is not only a thing permitted because they believe themselves Masters of their selves but that it is a Sacrifice advantageous to the Soul and which acquires it a great degree of Vertue and Felicity Thus the Siameses do sometimes hang themselves out of Devotion on a Tree which in Balie they call Pra sa maha Pout and in Siamese Ton po These Balie words do seem to signifie the excellent or the holy Tree of the great Mercury for Pout signifies Mercury in the Balie Name of Wednesday The Europeans do call this Tree the Tree of the Pagodes because the Siameses do plant it before the Pagods It grows in the Woods like the other Trees of the Country but no particular Person can have thereof in his Garden and it is of this Wood that they make all the Statues of Sommona-Codom which they would make of Wood. But in that Zeal which sometimes determines the Siameses to hang themselves there is always some evident subject of a great distaste of Life or of a great Fear as is that of the Anger of the Prince The Story of a Peguin which burnt himself 'T is about six or seven years since a Peguin burnt himself in one of the Temples which the Peguins at Siam have called Sam-Pihan He seated himself cross-leg'd and besmear'd his whole body with a very thick Oil or rather with a sort of Gum and set fire thereunto 'T was reported that he was very much discontented with his Family which nevertheless lamented exceedingly about him After the Fire had smother'd and roasted him well his body was covered with a kind of Plaister and thereof they made a Statue which was gilded and put upon the Altar behind that of the Sommona-Codom They call these sorts of Saints Pra tian tee tian signifies true tee signifies certainly Behold then how the Siameses understand the first Precept of their Moral Law The Prohibition of Impurity extends to the Prohibition of Marriage I have nothing particular to say upon the second but as to the third which prohibits all manner of Uncleanness it extends not only to Adultery but to all carnal Commerce of a Man with a Woman and to Marriage itself Not only Celibacy is amongst them a state of Perfection but Marriage is a state of Sin either through that Spirit of Modesty which amongst all Nations is annext to the use of Marriage and which seems therein to suppose an evil whereat they blush or through a general Aversion to all natural indecencies some
or Prince of Tac. Tian-Tong is ruin'd doubtless by the Ancient Wars of Pegu. Campeng is known by the Mines of excellent Steel Another River likewise called Menam At the City of Laconcevan the Menam receives another considerable River which comes also from the North and is likewise called Menam a name common to all great Rivers Our Geographers make it to spring from the Lake of Chiamai but it is certain that it hath its source in the Mountains which lye not so much to the North as this City It runs first to Meuang-fang then to Pitchiai Pitsanoulouc and Pitchit and at last to Laconcevan where it mixes as I have said with the other River Pitsanoulouc which the Portugueses do corruptly call Porselouc has formerly had hereditary Lords like the City of Me-Tac and Justice is at present executed in the Palace of the Ancient Princes 'T is a City of great commerce fortified with fourteen Bastions and is at 19 degrees and some minutes Latitude Laconcevan stands about the mid-way from Pitsanoulouc or Porselouc to Siam a distance computed to be Twenty five days Journey for those that go up the River in a Boat or Balon but this voyage may be performed in twelve days when they have a great many Rowers and they ascend the River with speed Cities of Wood. These Cities like all the rest in the Kingdom of Siam are only a great number of Cabbins frequently environ'd with an enclosure of Wood and sometimes with a Brick or Stone Wall but very rarely of Stone Nevertheless as the Eastern people have ever had as much magnificence and pride in the figures of their Language as simplicity and poverty in whatever appertains to Life the names of these Cities do signifie great things Tian-Tong for instance signifies True Gold Campeng pet Walls of Diamond and 't is said that its Walls are of Stone The superstition of the Siameses at Meuang-fang and Laconcevan signifies the Mountain of Heaven A MAPP of the Course of the River MENAM from SIAM to the SEA Such another Superstition prevails at a place named Prabat Another Superstition at Prabrat about five or six leagues to the East-North-East of the City of Louvo the superstition is this In the Balie Language which is the learned tongue of the Siameses or the Tongue of their Religion Bat signifies a Foot and the word Pra of which it is not possible exactly to render the signification signifies in the same tongue whatever may be conceived worthy of veneration and respect The Siameses do give this title to the Sun and Moon but they do also give it to Sommona-Codom to their Kings and some considerable Officers The Prabat is therefore the print of a mans foot What it is cut by an ill Graver upon a Rock but this impression containing about 13 or 14 inches in depth is five or six times as long as a man's Foot and proportionably as broad The Siameses adore it and are perswaded that the Elephants especially the white ones the Rhinoceros and all the other Beasts of their Woods do likewise go to worship it when no person is there And the King of Siam himself goes to adore it once a year with a great deal of Pomp and Ceremony It is covered with a Plate of Gold and inclosed in a Chappel which is there built They report that this Rock which is now very flat and like a new mown Field was formerly a very high Mountain which shrunk and waxed level on a sudden under the Foot of Sommona-Codom in memory of whom they believe that the Impression of the Foot does there remain Nevertheless it is certain by the Testimony of ancient men that the Antiquity of this Tradition exceeds not 90 years A Talapoin or Religious Siamese of that time having doubtless made this Impression himself or procured it to be made and then feigned to have miraculously discovered it and without any other appearance of Truth gave Reputation and Credit to this Fable of the levell'd Mountain Now in all this the Siameses are only gross Imitators The Original of this Superstition In the Histories of India it is related with what respect a King of the Island of Ceylon kept an Apes Tooth which the Indians averred to be a Relique and with what Sums he endeavoured to purchase and ransom it from Constantine of Brigantium then Viceroy of the Indies who had found it amongst the Spoils taken from the Indians But Constantine chose rather to burn it and afterwards throw the Ashes into a River 'T is known likewise that in the same Island of Ceylon which the Indians do call Lanca and on a real Mountain which is not levelled there is a pretended print of a Man's foot which has for a long time been in great Veneration there It doubtless represents the Left foot For the Siameses report that Sommona-Codom set his right foot on their Prabat and his left on Lanca altho the whole Gulph of Bengala runs between them The Portuguese have called the Print at Ceylon Adam's Foot What the Adam's foot of Ceylon is and believe that Ceylon was the Terrestrial Paradise from the Faith of the Indians at Ceylon who declare that the Impression which they reverence is the Print of the first Man Every one of these Heathenish Nations vigorously asserting that the first Man inhabited their Country Thus the Chineses do call the first man Puoncuò and believe that he inhabited China I say nothing of some other Impressions of this nature which are rever'd in several places of the Indies nor of the pretended print of Hercules foot mentioned by Herodotus Lib. 4. c. 82. I return to my subject CHAP. II. A Continuation of the Geographical Description of the Kingdom of Siam with an Account of its Metropolis Other Cities of the Kingdom of Siam ON the Frontiers of Pegu is seated the City of Cambory and on the borders of Laos the Town of Corazema which some do call Carissima both very Famous And in the Lands which lie between the Rivers above the City of Laconcevan and on the Channels which have a Communication from one River to the other there are two other considerable Cities Socotai almost in the same Latitude with Pitchit and Sanquelouc more to the North. A Countrey intersected with Channels The City of Siam described The Country being so hot that it is inhabitable only near Rivers the Siameses have cut a great many Channels and without having better Memoirs or Notes 't is impossible to reckon up all the Cities seated thereon 'T is by the means of these Channels called by the Siameses Cloum that the City of Siam is not only become an Island but is placed in the middle of several Islands which renders the situation thereof very singular The Isle wherein it is situated is at present all inclosed within its walls which certainly was not in the time of Ferdinand Mendez Pinto if notwithstanding the continual mistakes of
favour of those that love to reason on Philosophical matters The Siameses do not give many forms to their Lands The time of ploughing and reaping They till them and sowe them when the Rains have sufficiently softened them and they gather their harvest when the waters are retired and sometimes when they are yet remaining on the ground and they can go only by Boat All the land that is overflowed is good for Rice and 't is said that the Ear always surmounts the waters and that if they encrease a foot in twenty four hours the Rice grows a foot also in twenty four hours but though it be averr'd that this happens sometimes I cannot without much difficulty believe it in so vast an Inundation And I rather conceive that when the Inundation surmounts the Rice at any time it rots it They gather Rice also in divers Cantons of the Kingdom which the Rains do not overflow and this is more substantial better relisht and keeps longer Another sort of Rice When it has grown long enough in the Land where it was sown it is transplanted into another which is prepared after this manner They overflow it as we do the Salt Marshes until it be throughly soft and for this purpose it is necessary to have high Cisterns or rather to keep the Rain-water in the Field it self by little Banks made all round Then they let the water go to feed the Land level it and in fine transplant the Rice-Roots one after the other by thrusting them in with the Thumb I am greatly inclin'd to believe The original of Agriculture with the Siameses that the Ancient Siameses lived only upon Fruits and Fish as still do several people of the Coasts of Africk and that in process of time Husbandry has been taught them by the Chineses We read in the History of China that 't was anciently the King himself that annually first set his hand to the Plough in this great Kingdom and that of the Crop which his Labour yielded him he made the Bread for the Sacrifices The Lawful King of Tonquin and Cochinchina together who is called the Buado's likewise observe this Custom of first breaking up the Lands every year and of all the Royal Functions this is almost the only one remaining to him The most important are exercised by two Hereditary Governors the one of Tonquin and the other of Cochinchina who wage war and who are the true Soveraigns although they profess to acknowledge the Bua which is at Tonquin for their Soveraign The Ceremony of the Siameses touching Agriculture The King of Siam did formerly also set his hand to the Plough on a certain day of the year For about an Age since and upon some superstitious Observation of a bad Omen he labours no more but leaves this Ceremony to an imaginary King which is purposely created every year yet they will not permit him to bear the Title of King but that of Oc-ya-Kaou or Oc-ya of the Rice He is mounted upon an Ox and rides to the place where he must plough attended with a great train of Officers that are obedient to him This Masquerade for one day gets him wherewithal to live on the whole year And by the same superstition has deterred the Kings themselves It is look'd upon as ominous and unlucky to the person I suspect therefore that this custom of causing the lands to be ploughed by the Prince came from China to Tonquin and Siam with the Art of Husbandry It is Politick and Superstitious both together It may perhaps have been invented only to gain credit to Husbandry by the example of Kings themselves but it is intermixt with a great many superstitions to supplicate the good and evil Spirits whom they think able to help or hurt the goods of the Earth Amongst other things the Oc-ya-Kaou offers them a Sacrifice in the open field of an heap of Rice-sheaves whereunto he sets fire with his own hand CHAP. IX Of the Gardens of the Siameses and occasionally of their Liquors Their Pulse and Roots The Potatoe THE Siameses are not less addicted to the manuring of Gardens than to the ploughing of Arable Lands They have Pulse and Roots but for the most part different from ours Amongst the Roots the Potatoe deserves a parcular mention It is of the form and size almost of a Parsenep and the inside thereof is sometimes white sometimes red sometimes purple but I never saw any but the first sort Being roasted under the Ashes it eats like the Chesnut The Isles of America made it known to us it there frequently supplies as some report the place of Bread At Siam I have seen Chibbols and no Onions Garlick Turneps Cucumbers Citruls Water-melons Parsley Bawm Sorrel They have no true Melons nor Strawberries nor Raspberries nor Artichoaks but a great deal of Asparagus of which they do not eat They have neither Sallory nor Beets nor Coleworts nor Coleflore nor Turneps nor Parseneps nor Carrots nor Leeks nor Lettuce nor Chervil nor most of the Herbs whereof we compose our Sallads Yet the Dutch have most of all these Plants at Batavia which is a sign that the Soil of Siam would be proper thereunto It bears large Mushromes but few and ill tasted It yields no Truffles not so much as that insipid and scentless kind which the Spaniards do call Criadillas de tierra and which they put into their pot Cucumbers Chibbols Garlick Radishes The Siameses do eat Cucumbers raw as they do throughout the East and also in Spain and it is not impossible but their Cucumbers may be more wholsom than ours seeing that Vinegar doth not harden them They look upon them and call them a kind of Water-Melons Mr. Vincent inform'd me that a Persian will eat 36 pound weight of Melons or Cucumbers at the beginning of the season of these Fruits to purge himself The Chibbols Garlick and Radishes have a sweeter taste at Siam than in this Country These sort of Plants do lose their Rankness by the great Heat And I easily believe what those who have experienc'd it have assured me that nothing is more pleasant than the Onions of Aegypt which the Israelites so exceedingly regretted Flowers I have seen a great many Tuberoses in the Gardens of Siam and no Roses nor Gillyflowers but it is said there are plenty of Gillyflowers and few Roses and that these Flowers have less scent here than in Europe so that the Roses have hardly any The Jasmine is likewise so rare that 't is said there are none but at the King's House We were presented with two or three Flowers as a wonder They have a great many Amaranthus and Tricolors Except these most of the Flowers and Plants which adorn our Gardens are unknown to them But in their stead they have others which are peculiar to them and which are very agreeable for their Beauty and Odor I have remark'd of some that they smell only in the Night by
what they present you with both their hands and not to take with both hands what they receive from you But let this suffice as concerning the Civility with which the Siameses inspire their Children altho' I have not exhausted this Subject CHAP. IX Of the Studies of the Siameses They put their Children to the Talapoins WHen they have educated their Children to seven or eight years old they put them into a Convent of Talapoins and make them assume the habit of a Talapoin for it is a Profession which obliges not and which is quitted at pleasure without disgrace These little Talapoins are called Nen they are not Pensioners but their Friends do daily send them Food Some of these Nens are of a good Family and have one or more Slaves to wait upon them They are taught principally to Read to Write and to cast Accompt What they learn by reason that nothing is more necessary to Merchants and that all the Siameses do exercise Traffic They are taught the Principles of their Morality and the Fables of their Sommona-Codom but no History nor Law nor any Science They likewise teach them the Balie Tongue which as I have more than once declared is the language of their Religion and their Laws and few amongst them do make any progress therein if they do not a long time adhere to the profession of the Talapoin or if they enter not into some offices for it is in these two Cases only that this language is useful to them They write the Siamese and Balie from the left hand to the right The Balie and Siamese Languages compared with the Chinese after the same manner as we write our Languages of Europe in which they differ from most of the other Asiatics who have ever wrote from the right to the left and from the Chineses also who draw the line from the top to the bottom and who in the ranging of the lines in one Page do put the first on the right hand and the others successively towards the left They are different also from the Chineses in that they have not like them a Character for every word or even for every signification of a single word to the end that the writing may have no Equivocations like the Language The Siamese and Balie Tongues have like ours an Alphabet of few letters of which are compos'd syllables and words Moreover the Siamese Language participates greatly of the Chinese in that it has a great deal of Accent for their Voice frequently rises above one fourth and in that it consists almost all of Monosyllables so that it may be presumed that if one perfectly understood it one should find that the few words which it has of several syllables are either foreign or composed of Monosyllables some of which are used only in these Compositions But the most remarkable Similitude that is between these two Languages The Siamese and Chinese Languages have no Declensions of words the Balie has and which is not found in the Balie is that neither the one nor the other have any Declension or Conjugation nor perhaps Derivations which the Balie has As for Example the word which signifies Content may likewise signifie Contentment and that which signifies Good will signifie Well and Bounty according to the various ways of using them The placing alone denotes the Cases in Nouns and herein their disposition is hardly different from ours And as to the Conjugations the Siameses have only four or five small Particles which they put sometimes before the Verb and sometimes after to signifie the Numbers Tenses and Moods thereof I will insert them at the end of this Volume with the Siamese and Balie Alphabets and it is in this that their whole Grammar almost consists Their Dictionary is not less simple I mean The Siamese Language not copious but very figurative that their Language is not copious but the turn of their Phrase is only more various and more difficult In cold Countries where the Imagination is cold every thing is called by its Name and they do there abound as much or more in words than in things And when one has fixed all these words in his memory he may promise himself to speak well It is not the same in hot Countries few words do there suffice to express much by reason that the briskness of the Imagination employs them in an hundred different ways all figurative Take two or three Examples of the methods of speaking Siamese Good Heart signifies Content thus to say If I was at Siam I should be content they said If I were City Siam me heart good much Sii signifies Light and by a Metaphor Beauty and by a second Metaphor this word Sii being joined with Pak which signifies Mouth Sii-pak signifies the Lips as if one should say The Light or Beauty of the Mouth Thus The Glory of the Wood signifies a Flower the Son of the Water implies in general whatever is ingender'd in the Water without it be Fish as Crocodiles and all sorts of aquatic Insects And on other occasions the word Son will only denote Smalness as the Sons of the Weights to signifie small Weights contrary to the word Mother which in certain things they make use of to signifie Greatness In short I have not seen any words in this Language that have resemblance to ours excepting those of po and me which signifie Father and Mother in Chinese fu mu. Arithmetic I proceed to Arithmetic which after Reading and Writing is the principal Study of the Siameses Their Arithmetic like ours hath ten Characters with which they figure the Nought like us and to which they give the same Powers as we in the same disposition placing like us from the Right to the Left Unites Tens Hundreds Thousands and all the other Powers of the Number Ten. The Indian Merchants are so well vers'd in casting Accompt and their Imagination is so clear thereupon that it is said they can presently resolve very difficult Questions of Arithmetic but I suppose likewise that they do never resolve what they cannot resolve immediately They love not to trouble their heads and they have no use of Algebra An Instrument which serves the Chineses for an Abacus or Compting Table The Siameses do always calculate with a Pen but the Chineses make use of an Instrument which resembles the Abacus and which F. Martinius in his History of China intimates that they invented about 2600 or 2700 years before Jesus Christ However it be Pignorius in his Book de Servis informs us that this Instrument was familiar to the ancient Roman Slaves that were appointed to cast Accompt I give the Description and Figure thereof at the end of this Work The Siameses not proper for Studies of Application The Studies to which we apply our selves in our Colledges are almost absolutely unknown to the Siameses and it may be doubted whether they are fit for such The essential Character of
his Children too 3dly The King of Siam gives the Tchaou-Meuang some men to execute his Orders they accompany him everywhere and they row in his Balon The Siameses do call them Kenlai or Painted Arms by reason that they pink and mangle their Arms and lay Gunpowder on the wounds which paints their Arms with a faded Blue The Portuguese do call them Painted Arms and Officers and these Painted Arms are still used in the Country of Laos 4thly In the Maritime Governments the Tchaou-Meuang sometimes takes Customs of the Merchant Ships but it is generally inconsiderable At Tenasserim it is eight per Cent. in the kind according to the Relation of the Foreign Missions Some have assur'd me The Humanity of the Siameses towards those that have suffered Shipwrack that the Siameses have the Humanity not to appropriate any thing to themselves of what the Tempest casts on their Coasts by Shipwrack yet Ferdinand Mendez Pinto relates that Lewis de Monteroyo a Portuguese having suffer'd Shipwrack on the Coast of Siam near Patana the Chabaudar or Custom-house Officer which he names Chatir confiscated not only the Ship and its Cargo but Monteroyo himself and some Children alledging that by the ancient Custom of the Kingdom whatever the Sea cast upon the Coasts was the profit of his Office 'T is true that this Author adds with great Praises on the King of Siam who then reigned that this Prince at the Request of the Portugueses which were at his Court set Monteroyo at liberty and restor'd him all the Prize and the Children but he subjoins also that it was out of Charity and on the day that this Prince went through the City mounted on a white Elephant to distribute Alms to the People 5thly A continuance of the Rights or Profits of the Tchaou-Meuang The Tchaou-Meuang arrogating to themselves all the Rights of Soveraignty over the Frontiers do levy when they can extraordinary Taxes on the People 6thly The Tchaou-Meuang do exercise Commerce every where but under the name of their Secretary or some other of their Domestics And this last Circumstance demonstrates that they have some shame and that the Law perhaps prohibits them but that in this they are not more scrupulous than their King 7thly In some places where there are Fish-ponds the Tchaou-Meuang take the best of the Fish when the Pond is emptied but he takes for his own use only and not to sell and the rest he leaves to the People 8thly Venison and Salt are free throughout the Kingdom and the King himself has laid no Prohibition nor Impost thereon Salt is there of little value I have heard that they have Rock-salt and they make it of Sea-water some have told me with the Sun others with Fire and perhaps both is true At the places where the Shoars are too high to receive the Sea and in those where Wood is not near at hand the Salt may fail or cost too much to make as in the Island of Jonsalam the Inhabitants whereof do rather chuse to import their Salt from Tenasserim The Rights or Profits of the Pou-ran The Pou-ran or Governor by Commission has the same Honours and the same Authority as the Tchaou-Meuang but not the same Profits The King of Siam names the Pou-ran upon two Accounts either when he would have no Tchaou-Meuang or when the Tchaou-Meuang is obliged to absent himself from his Government for the Tchaou-Meuang has no ordinary Lieutenant who can supply his place in his absence as in France the Chancellor has none In the first Case the Pou-ran has only the Profits which the King assigns him at naming him in the second Case he takes the Moyety of the Profits from the Tchaou-Meuang and leaves him the other Moyety The Names and Functions of the Officers which compose a Tribunal Now follows the ordinary Officers of a Tribunal of Judicature not that there are so many in every one but that in any one perhaps there is not more Oc-ya Tchaou-Meuang The Tchaou-Meuang is not always Oc-ya he has sometimes another Title and the other Officers of his Tribunal have always some Titles proportion'd to his Oc-Pra Belat His Name signifies Second but he presides not in the absence of the Tchaou Meuang because he has no determinative Voice Oc-Pra Jockebatest a kind of Attorney-General and his Office is to be a strict Spy upon the Governor His Office is not Hereditary the King nominates some person of Trust but Experience evinces that there is no Fidelity in these Men and that all the Officers hold a private Correspondence to pillage the People Oc Pra Peun commands the Garrison if there is any but under the Orders of the Tchaou-Meuang and he has no Authority over his Soldiers but when they are in the Field Oc-Pra Maha-Tai is as it were the Chief of the People His Name seems to signifie the Great Siamese for Maha signifies Great and Tai signifies Siamese 'T is he that levies the Soldiers or rather that demands them of the Nai who sends Provisions to the Army who watches that the Rolls of the People be well made and who in general executes all the Governor's Orders which concern the People Oc-Pra Sassedi makes and keeps the Rolls of the People 'T is an Office very subject to Corruption by reason that every particular person endeavors to get himself omitted out of the Rolls for money The Nai do likewise seek to favor those of their Band who make Presents to them and to oppress those with labour who have nothing to give them The Maha Tai and the Sassedi would prevent this disorder if they were not the first corrupted The Sassedi begins to enter down Children upon the Rolls when they are three or four Years old Oc-Louang-Meuang is as it were the Mayor of the City for as I have already said Meuang signifies City but as for what concerns the Title of Oc-Louang it does not signifie Mayor and is no more applied to that Office than another Title This Mayor takes care of the Polity and Watch. They kept a Watch every Night round the Ambassador's Lodgings as round the King of Siam's Palace and this was a very great Token of Honour Oc-Louang Vang is the Master of the Governor's Palace for Vang signifies Palace He causes it to be repair'd he commands the Governor's Guards and even their Captain and in a word he orders in the Governor's Palace whatever has relation to the Governor's charge Oc-Louang-Peng keeps the Book of the Law and the Custom according to which they judge and when Judgment is passed he reads the Article thereof which serves for the Judgment of the Process and in a word it is he that pronounces the Sentence Oc-Louang Clang has the Charge of the King's Magazine Clang signifies Magazine He receives certain of the King's Revenues and sells to the People the King's Commodities that is to say those the Trade of which the King appropriates to himself as in Europe the Princes
do generally appropriate the Trade of Salt to themselves Oc-Louang Couca has the Inspection over Foreigners he protects them or accuses them to the Governor Moreover there are some Officers in every superior Tribunal to send to the inferior Justices when the Tchaou-Meuang or Pouran are dead whilst that the King fills the place and the number of these Officers are as great as that of the inferior Justices Oc-Louang or Oc-Counne Coeng is the Provost he is always armed with a Sabre and has Painted Arms like Archers Oc-Counne Pa-ya Bat is the Keeper of the Goal or Prisons and the word Pa-ya which the Portugueses have translated by that of Prince seems exceedingly vilified in the Title of this Office Nai-Goug is the true Goaler Couc signifies a Prison and nothing is more cruel than the Prisons of Siam They are Cages of Bambou exposed to all the injuries of the Air. Oc-Counne Narin commands those that have the care of the Elephants which the King has in the Province for there are some in several places because it would be difficult to lodge and feed a very great number of Elephants together Oc-Counne Nai-rang is the Purveyor of the Elephants In a word there is an Officer in every Tribunal to read the Tara or Orders from the King to the Governor and an House in an eminent place for to keep them As within the inclosure of the King of Siam's Palace there is a single House on an eminent place to keep all the Letters which the King of Siam receives from other Kings These are the Officers which are called from within Besides these An important distinction into Officers within and Officers without there are others which are called from without for the Service of the Province All have an entire dependance upon the Governor and altho those without have the like Titles yet they are very inferior to the Officers within Thus an Oc-Meuang within the Palace is superior to an Oc-ya without and in a word it is not necessary to believe that all those who bear great Titles must always be great Lords That infamous fellow who buys Women and Maids to prostitute them bears the Title of Oc-ya he is called Oc-ya Meen and is a very contemptible person There are none but debauch'd persons that have any Correspondence with him Every one of the Officers within has his Lieutenant in Siamese Balat and his Register in Siamese Semien and in his House which the King gives him he has generally an Hall to give his Audiences CHAP. V. Of the Judiciary Stile and Form of Pleading THey have only one Stile for all matters in Law They have not a double Stile and they have not thought fit to divide them into Civil and Criminal either because there is always some punishment due to him that is cast even in a matter purely Civil or because that suits in matters purely Civil are very rare there 'T is a general Rule amongst them that all Process should be in writing They plead only in writing and by giving Bail The Function of the Nai in Law Suits and that they plead not without giving Caution But as the whole People of the Jurisdiction is divided by Bands and that their principal Nai are the Officers of the Tribunal whom I shall call by the general name of Councellors in case of process the Plaintiff goes first to the Councellor who is his Nai or to his Country Nai who goes to the Councellor Nai He presents him his Petition and the Councellor presents it to the Governor The Duty of the Governour is nicely to examin it and to admit or reject it according as to him it seems just or unjust and in this last case to Chastise the Party who presented it to the end that no person might begin any process rashly and this is likewise the Stile or form of China but it is little observed at Siam How a Process is prepared at Siam The Governor then admits the Petition and refers it to one of the Councellors and ordinarily he returns it to him that presented it if he is the common Nai of both parties but then he puts his Seal thereunto and he counts the lines and the cancelling thereof to the end that no alteration may be made The Councellor gives it to his Deputy and to his Clerk who make their report to him at his House in his Hall of Audience And this report and all those which I shall treat of in the sequel are only a Lecture After this the Councellor's Clerk presented by his Master reports or reads this very Petition in the Governour 's Hall at an Assembly of all the Councellors but in the absence of the Governor who vouchsafes not to appear at whatever serves only to prepare the Cause The Parties are there called in under pretence of endeavouring to reconcile them and they are summon'd three times more for fashions sake than with a sincere intention of procuring the accommodation This Reconciliation not succeeding the Court orders if there are witnesses that they should be heard before the same Clerk unless he be declared suspected And in such another Session that is to say where the Governor is not present the Clerk reads the Process and the depositions of the Witnesses and they proceed to the Opinions which are only consultative and which are all writ down beginning with the Opinion of the last Officer The Form of the Judgments The Process being thus prepar'd and the Council standing in presence of the Governor his Clerk reads unto him the Process and the Opinions and the Governor after having resumed them all interrogates those whose Opinions seem to him not just to know of them upon what reasons they grounded them After this Examination he pronounces in general terms that such of the Parties shall be condemned according to the Law The Law or Custom is read Then it belongs to Oc-Louang-Peng to read with a loud voice the Article of the Law which respects the suit but in that Country as in this they dispute the sense of the Laws They do there seek out some accommodations under the title of Equity and under pretence that all the circumstances of the fact are never in the Law they never follow the Law The Governour alone decides these disputes and the Sentence is pronounced upon the parties and set down in Writing But if it be contrary to all appearance of Justice it belongs to the Jockebat or the Kings Attorney General to advertise the Court thereof but not to oppose it Suits are a long time depending They have no Advocate nor Attorney Every suit ought to end in three days and some there are which last three years The parties do speak before the Clerk who writes down what they tell him and they speak either by themselves or by another but it is necessary that this other who herein performs the office of an Attorney or Advocate should be at least Cousin
Appeals of the Kingdom do go they call Yumrat He generally bears the Title of Oc-ya and his Tribunal is in the King's Palace but he follows not the King when that Prince removes from his Metropolis and then he renders Justice in a Tower which is in the City of Siam and without the inclosure of the Palace To him alone belongs the determinative Voice and from him there also lyes an Appeal to the King if any one will bear the expence The Judiciary form before the King In this case the Process is referred and examined by the King's Council but in his absence to a Sentence inclusively consultative as is practised in the Council of the Tchaou-Meuang The King is present only when it is necessary that he pronounce a definitive Judgment and according to the general form of the Kingdom this Prince before passing the Sentence resumes all the opinions and debates with his Councellors those which to him seem unjust and some have assured me that the present King acquits himself herein with a great deal of Ingenuity and Judgment The Office of Pra-sadet which is pronounced Pra-sedet The Governor of the City of Siam is called Pra-sedet and generally also bears the Title of Oc ya His Name which is Baly is composed of the word Pra which I have several times explained and of the word Sedet which signifies say some the King is gone and indeed they speak not otherwise to say that the King is gone But this does not sufficiently explain what the Office of Pra-sedet is and in several things it appears that they have very much lost the exact understanding of the Baly Mr. Gervaise calls this Office Pesedet I always heard it called Pra-sedet and by able men altho they write it Pra-sadet The Reception which the Governors gave to the King's Ambassadors every one in his Government The course of the River from its Mouth to the Metropolis is divided into several small Governments The first is Pipeli the second Prepadem the third Bancock the fourth Talaccan and the fifth Siam The Officers of every one of these Governments received the King's Ambassadors at the enterance into their Jurisdiction and they left them not till the Officers of the next Jurisdiction had joyned and saluted them and they were the particular Officers of each Government that made the Head of the Train Besides this there were some Officers more considerable that came to offer the King their Master's Balons to the Ambassadors at the Mouth of the River and every day there joyned new Officers that came to bring new Compliments to the Ambassadors and who quitted not the Ambassadors after they had joined them The place where the King's Ambassadors expected the day of their entrance The King's Ambassadors arrived thus within two Leagues of Siam at a place which the French called the Tabanque and they waited there eight or ten days for the time of their entrance into the Metropolis Tabanque in Siamese signifies the Custom House and because the Officer's House which stands at the Mouth of the River is of Bamhou like all the rest the French gave the name of Tabanque to all the Bambou-houses where they lodged from the name of the Officers House which they had seen first of all The day therefore that the King's Ambassadors made their enterance The Governor of Siam came to fetch them Oc-ya Prasedet as Governour of the Metrpolis came to visit and compliment them at this pretended Tabanque CHAP. VII Of the State Officers and particularly of the Tchacry Calla-hom and of the General of the Elephants AMongst the Court Officers are principally those Of the chief Officers in general to whom are annexed the Functions of our Secretaries of State but before an enterance be made into this matter I must declare that all the chief Officers in any kind of Affairs whatever have under them as many of those Subaltern Officers which compose the Tribunal of the Tchaou-Meuang The Tchacry has the distribution of all the Interior polity of the Kingdom Of the Tchacry to him revert all the Affairs of the Provinces All the Governours do immediately render him an Account and do immediately receive Orders from him he is President of the Council of State The Calla-hom has the appointment of the War Of the Calla-hom he has the care of the Fortifications Arms and Ammunitions He issues out all the Orders that concern the Armies and he is naturally the General thereof altho the King may name whom he pleases for General By Van Vliet's Relation it appears that the Command of the Elephants belonged also to the Calla-hom even without the Army But now this is a separate Employment as some have assured me either for that the present King's Father after having made use of the Office of the Calla-hom to gain the Throne resolved to divide the Power thereof or that naturally they are two distinct Offices which may be given to a single Person However it be 't is Oc-Pra Pipitcharatcha corruptly called Petratcha Of the General of the Elephants who commands all the Elephants and all the Horses and it is one of the greatest Employments of the Kingdom because that the Elephants are esteemed the King of Siam's Principal Forces Some there are who report that this Prince maintains Ten Thousand but is impossible to be known by reason that Vanity always inclines these People to Lying and they are more vain in the matter of Elephants than in any thing else The Metropolis of the Kingdom of Laos is called Lan-Tchang and its name in the Language of the Country which is almost the same as the Siameses signifies Ten Millions of Elephants The King of Siam keeps therefore a very great number and it is said that three men at least are required for the service of every Elephant and these men with all the Offiers that command them are under the orders of Oc-Pra Pipitcharatcha who though he has only the Title of Oc-Pra is yet a very great Lord. The people love him because he appears moderate and think him invulnerable because he expressed a great deal of Courage in some Fight against the Peguins his Courage has likewise procur'd him the Favour of the King his Master His Family has continued a long time in the highest Offices is frequently allied to the Crown and it is publickly reported that he or his Son Oc-Louang Souracac may pretend to it if either of them survive the King that now Reigns The Mother of Oc-Pra Pip â—haratcha was the King's Nurse and the Mother of the first Ambassador whom we saw here and when the King commanded the great Barcalon the Brother of this Ambassador to be bastinado'd the last time 't was Oc-Louang Souracac the Son of Oc-Pra Pipitcharatcha that bastinado'd him by the King's order and in his presence the Prince's Nurse the Mother of the Barcalon lying prostrate at his Feet to obtain pardon for her Son CHAP.
The King of Siam's Revenues arise from two Sources and Revenues of the Country The Country Revenues are received by Oc ya Pollatep according to some or Vorethep according to Mr. Gervase They are all reduced to the Heads following 1. On Forty Fathom Square of cultivated Lands His Duties on cultivated Lands a Mayon or quarter of a Tical by year but this Rent is divided with the Tchaou-Meuang where there is one and it is never well paid to the King on the Frontiers Besides this the Law of the Kingdom is that whoever ploughs not his ground pays nothing though it be by his own negligence that he reaps nothing But the present King of Siam to force his Subjects to work has exacted this duty from those that have possessed Lands for a certain time although they omit to cultivate them Yet this is executed only in the places where his Authority is absolute He loved nothing so much as to see Strangers come to settle in his States there to manure those great uncultivated Spaces which without comparison do make the most considerable part thereof in this case he would be liberal of untilled grounds and of Beasts to cultivate them though they had been cleared and prepared for Tillage 2. On Boats or Balons On Boats the Natives of the Country pay a Tical for every Fathom in length Under this Reign they have added that every Balon or Boat above six Cubits broad should pay six Ticals and that Foreigners should be obliged to this duty as well as the Natives of the Country This duty is levied like a kind of Custom at certain places of the River and amongst others at Tchainat four Leagues above Siam where all the Streams unite 3. Customs on whatever is imported or exported by Sea Besides which Customes the body of the Ship pays something in proportion to its Capacities like the Balons 4. On Arak or Rice-Brandy or rather on every Furnace where it is made On Arak which they call Taou-laou the People of the Country do pay a Tical per Annum This Duty has been doubled under this Reign and is exacted on the Natives of the Country and on Strangers alike 'T is likewise added that every Seller of Arak by re-tail should pay a Tical a year and every Seller by whole-sale a Tical per Annum for every great Pot the size of which I find no otherwise described in the Note which was given me 5. On the Fruit called Durion for every Tree already bearing On Durions or not bearing Fruit two Mayons or half a Tical per annum 6. On every Tree of Betel a Tical per annum On Betel 7. On every Arekier they formerly paid three Nuts of Arek in kind On the Arek under this Reign they pay six 8. Revenues entirely new or established under this Reign New Imposts are in the first place a certain Duty on a School of Recreation permitted at Siam The Tribute which the Oc-ya Meen pays is almost of the same Nature but I know not whether it is not ancienter than the former In the second place on every Coco-Tree half a Tical per Annum and in the third place on Orange-Trees Mango-Trees Mangoustaniers and Pimentiers for each a Tical per Annum There is no duty on Pepper by reason that the King would have his Subjects addict themselves more to plant it A Demesn reserved to the King 9. This Prince has in several places of his States some Gardens and Lands which he causes to be cultivated as his particular demesn as well by his Slaves as by the six Months Service He causes the Fruits to be gathered and kept on the places for the maintenance of his House and for the nourishment of his Slaves his Elephants his Horses and other Cattle and the rest he sells 10. A Casual Revenue is the Presents which this Prince receives as well as all the Officers of his Kingdom the Legacies which the Officers bequeath him at their death or which he takes from their Succession and in fine the extraordinary Duties which he takes from his Subjects on several occasions as for the Maintenance of Foreign Ambassadors to which the Governors into whose Jurisdiction the Ambassadors do pass or sojourn are obliged to contribute and for the building of Forts and other publick works an expence which he levies on the People amongst whom these works are made Confiscations and Fines Six Months Service 11. The Revenues of Justice do donsist in Confiscations and Fines 12. Six Months service of every one of his Subjects per Annum a Service which he or his Officers frequently extend much further who alone discharges it from every thing and from which there remains to him a good Increase For in certain places this Service is converted into a payment made in Rice or in Sapan-wood or Lignum-aloes or Saltpetre or in Elephants or in Beasts Skins or in Ivory or in other Commodities and in fine this Service is sometimes esteemed and paid in ready Money and it is for the ready Money that the Rich are exempted Anciently this Service was esteemed at a Tical a Month because that one Tical is sufficient to maintain one Man and this computation serves likewise as an assessment on the days Labour of the Workmen which a particular Person employs They amount to two Ticals a Month at least by reason that it is reckon'd that a Workman must in 6 Months gain his Maintenance for the whole year seeing that he can get nothing the other six Months that he serves the Prince The Prince now extorts two Ticals a Month for the exemption from the six Months Service Commerce a Revenue extraordinary or casual 13. His other Revenues do arise from the Commerce which he exercises with his Subjects and Foreigners He has carried it to such a degree that Merchandize is now no more the Trade of particular persons at Siam He is not contented with selling by Whole-sale he has some Shops in the Bazars or Markets to sell by Re-tail Cotton-cloath The principal thing that he sells to his Subjects is Cotton-cloath he sends them into his Magazines of the Provinces Heretofore his Predecessors and he sent them thither only every Ten Years and a moderate quantity which being sold particular persons had liberty to make Commerce thereof now he continually furnishes them he has in his Magazines more than he can possibly sell and it sometimes happens that to vend more that he has forced his Subjects to cloath their Children before the accustomed Age. Before the Hollanders came into the Kingdom of Laos and into others adjacent the King of Siam did there make the whole Commerce of Linnen with a considerable profit The Calin or Tin All the Calin is his and he sells it as well to Strangers as to his own Subjects excepting that which is dug out of the Mines of Jonsalam on the Gulph of Bengal for this being a
are the cold Winds of this Country The Hollanders which are setled there do say that if the South-west Wind blows not during their Summer which is our Winter the Distempers of the Lungs are frequent and dangerous The short stay that I made permitted me not througly to instruct my self concerning the Manners of the Hotantots the natural Inhabitants of the Cape though in the extream Simplicity in which they live this can be no long study They are called Hotantots because that when they dance they always in singing say this word Hotantot The Love of the Tobacco and Brandy which the Strangers offer them and which has made them to receive the Hollanders into their Country makes them to dance so long as one will that is to say to stamp sometimes with one Foot and sometimes with the other as he that treads the Grapes and incessantly and vigorously to say Hotantot Hotantot but with a very low voice as if they were out of breath or that they fear'd to awaken any one This mute Song has no diversity of Tones but of Measure the two first Syllables of Hotantot are always two Blacks or Crochets and the last always a White or Minime They go all naked as may be seen in the figure which I have given They have but one skin over their Shoulders like a Cloak yet do they quit it at every place and then they have only a little Leather Purse hung to their Neck by a string and a piece of a Skin a little bigger than one's Hand hung before and fastned with another string round their body but this little piece covers them not either when they show themselves side-ways or when they do make a brisk motion Their stature is acceptable and their gate more easy than can be expressed They are born as white as the Spaniards but they have their Hair very much frizled and Features participating somewhat of those of the Negro's and besides they are always very black because that they grease their Body and Face They do also grease their Head and we smell them twenty Paces when they have the Wind. Our men gave them Pots and Cauldrons to bath in and before all things they took the Fat by hands-full and herewith anointed their whole Body from the Head to the Feet The Grease defends them from the Air and the Sun renders them sound and well disposed and they prefer these natural Advantages before Sweet Scents and Pleasure They are so active that several among them do out-run Horses There is no Brook which they swim not over They are expert in drawing the Bow and throwing the Dart and they have Courage even to Undauntedness They do sometimes worst a Lion provided they have Skins enough and Furniture enough to garnish their left Arm. They do thrust it thus into the Throat of this Animal and they pierce it with a Dart or Knife which they will have in their right hand If they are two the one kills the Lion whilst the other amuses him If they are several and they have nothing to secure themselves from the Claws of the Lion they fail not to expose themselves all at once The one of them generally perishes but the Lion perishes likewise by the Blows which the others give him Sometimes they are all saved and they kill the Lion Their Wives do likewise grease themselves though they affect some Ornament as to fasten little Bones and Shells to their short Cottony and greasie Hair They also have Necklaces with divers colors of Glass Bone or such other matter according as the Foreigners do give them or sell them to them On each Leg they have fifty Rings of Leather which do beat one upon the other and make some Noise when they dance and which defend them from the Briers when they go to get Wood for this care concerns them and not their Husbands The Men and the Women did eat Guts almost without cleansing them when our men presented them therewith and they did hardly put them a moment on the Coals If we offer'd them Brandy they would gather up the first Shell they found on the ground to receive it and after having blow'd therein they used to drink in it They eat their Lice as well as the Cochinchinese and when we thought it strange they answer'd pleasantly that 't is because their Lice eat them They lodge under little Huts made of Branches or great Bulrush Mats the top of which hardly reach'd to my middle and to me it seem'd that I could not lye therein my whole length Under these Mats they make a hole in the ground and in this Hole about two Foot deep they make their Fire not caring for the Smoak whereof their Huts do not empty themselves They live on Hunting Fishing Milk and the Flesh of their Flocks In this Poverty they are always merry singing and dancing continually living without Pains and Business and caring for Gold and Silver only as far as it is necessary for them to buy a little Tobacco and Brandy a Corruption which the Foreign Commerce has introduced into their Customs As some amongst them were exercising themselves in throwing the Dart before us I offer'd them five or six Papers of Necklaces with Beads of coloured Glass and they all so exactly seized my Hand that I could not open it to let go the Necklaces and I could not besides explain my self unto them I was sometime in this perplexity till they perceived that they must set me at Liberty to obtain what they desired They love these Necklaces for their Wives and when we had set sail again I understood that a Laquais of ours had sold one for a Crown to one of them The little Money they have and of which they have little esteem is the Wages for the Service which they render sometimes to the Hollanders and to the other Foreigners which land at the Cape but they care but little to work Every one has but one Wife their Chief only has three and Adultery amongst them is punished with Death They kill their Children when they have too many and as they marry those which they keep exceeding young there is seen amongst them a great many Grand-Daughters already Widows who want a Joynt in their little Finger For when a Woman loses her Husband she cuts off a Joynt of the little Finger or of the fourth Finger if she has so often been a Widow as to have her whole little Finger cut off Nevertheless she may dispence therewith if she please and there are some Husbands who dispence not therewith when they have lost their Wife Most of them do make themselves Ridgils to be more fit for the Women and when the Age of renouncing comes they make themselves entirely Eunuchs to deprive themselves wholly of their Commerce and to enjoy a more vigorous old Age. The Hollanders had educated an Hotantot Infant after the European manner and had sent him into Holland Sometime after they caused him to