Preacher and those that do preach frequently not only at this time but during the whole course of the year do easily become rich Now it is this time which the Europeans have called the Lent of the Talapoins Of the Lent of the Talapoins and of their facility in fasting Their Fasting is to eat nothing from Noon unless they may chew Betel but when they do not fast they only eat Fruit in the Afternoon The Indians are naturally so sober that a Fast of Forty nay of an Hundred days appears not incredible to them Twist a Dutch Author in his Description of the Indies reports that Experience has certainly evinced that there are some Indians that can fast Twenty Thirty and Forty days without taking any thing but a little Liquor mixed with some bitter Wood reduced to Powder The Siameses have cited the example of a Talapoin whom they pretend to have fasted an hundred and seven days without eating any thing But when I sounded their opinion thereon I found that they attributed this Fast to Magick and to prove it to me they added that it was easie to live on the Grass of the Fields provided they breathed thereon and utter'd certain words which they understood not or which they would not inform me or which they said that others understood After the Rice-Harvest the Talapoins do go for three Weeks to watch in the Nights in the middle of the Fields The Watch of the Siameses in the Fields and the Esteem which the People makes thereof under small Huts of branches of Leaves ranged square and in the day they return to visit the Temple and to sleep in their Cells The Hut of the Superior stands in the middle of the others and higher They make no Fire in the Night to scare away the wild Beasts as all those that travel in the Woods of this Country us'd to do and as was done round the Tabanques wherein we lodged So that the People look upon it as a Miracle that the Talapoins are not devoured and I know not what precaution they use except that of enclosing themselves in a Park of Bambou But doubtless they chose places little exposed remote from the Woods and where the savage Beasts cannot come with Hunger but after having found a great deal of Food for it is the season wherein there is plenty of Forage on the ground The People admire also the security in which the Talapoins of the Woods do live For they have neither Convent nor Temple to retire into They think that the Tygers Elephants and Rhinoceros do respect them and lick their hands and feet when they find any one asleep but these may make a Fire of Bambou to defend themselves from these Animals they may lie in the closest Thickets and moreover though the people should find the remains of some man devoured it would never be presumed he was a Talapoin and when they could not doubt thereof they would presume that this Talapoin had been wicked and would not cease to believe that the Beasts respect the good And it must needs be that the Woods are not so dangerous as they report seeing that so many Families do seek Sanctuary there against the Government The Talapoins have a Chaplet I know not what the Talapoins do pretend either by this Watch or by their Lent I ignore also what the Chaplets of one Hundred and eight Grains on which they recite certain Balie words do mean Their Habit. They go with naked feet and bare-headed like the rest of the People round their Reins and Thighs they wear the Pagne of the Seculars but of yellow Linnen which is the colour of their Kings and of the Kings of China and they have no Muslin Shirt nor any Vest Their Habit consists of four pieces The first which they call Angsa is a kind of Shoulder Belt of yellow Linnen five or six Inches broad they wear it on their left Shoulder and button it with a single button on the right Hip and it descends not lower than the Hip. Over this Belt they put another great yellow cloath which is called the Pagne of the Talapoin and which they call Pa Schivon or the Cloth of several pieces because it ought to be patched in several places 'T is a kind of Scapulary which reaches down to the ground behind and before and which covering only the left Shoulder returns to the right Hip and leaves the two Arms and all the right Shoulder free Over the Pa Schivon is the Pa Pat. 'T is another cloth four or five Inches broad which they do likewise put over the left Shoulder but like a Hood it descends to the Navel before and as much behind as before It s colour is sometimes red the Sancrats and the most ancient Talapoins do wear it thus but the Angsa and the Pa Schivon can never be other than yellow To keep the Pa Pat and the Pa Schivon in a posture they girt the middle of their body with a Scarf of yellow Cloth which they call Rappacod and which is the fourth and last piece of their Habit. They have a little Iron-Bason for begging They shave all the Head and have a Screen in their hand When they go a begging they carry an Iron Bason to receive what is given them and they carry it in a Linnen Bag which hangs on the left side by two ends of a Rope hung like a Belt over the right Shoulder They shave all their Beard Head and Eyebrows and to defend themselves from the Sun they have the Talapat which is their little Vmbrella in form of a Screen as I have already said in the other part The Superior is forced to shave himself because no person can touch his head without showing him disrespect By the same reason a young Talapoin dares not to shave an old one but it is lawful for the old to shave the young I mean those Children whose Education is committed to them and who know not how to shave themselves Nevertheless when the Superior is very old it is necessary that he permit another to shave him and this other does it after having desired an express Permission In a word the Razors of Siam are of Copper The days on which they shave themselves are days of Devotion to the People The days on which they shave themselves are those of the new and full Moon and on these days the Talapoins and the People do fast that is to say they eat nothing from Noon The People abstain also on these days from going a Fishing not that Fishing is a work for they abstain not from any other Labor but because that in my opinion they esteem not Fishing wholly innocent as we shall see in the sequel And in fine the People on these days do carry unto the Convents some Alms which consist in Money Fruits Pagnes or Cattle If the Cattle are dead the Talapoins do eat them if they are alive they let them live and
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
weakness Their Friendship is perfidious Their manner of promising themselves an eternal amity is by drinking of the same Aqua Vitae in the same Cup and when they would swear themselves more solemnly they taste the blood one of another which Lucian gives us for a Custom of the ancient Scythians and which is practised also by the Chineses and by other Nations but the Siameses cease not sometimes to betray after all these Ceremonies They are naturally more moderate than we are because they are more dull In general they have more Moderation than us their Humors are as calm as their Heaven which changes only twice a year and insensibly when it turns by little and little from Rain to Fair-weather and from Fair-weather to Rain They act only by necessity and do not like us place merit in Action It seems not rational to them that Labour and Pains should be the Fruit and Reward of Vertue They have the good Fortune to be born Philosophers and it may be that if they were not born such they would not become so more than we I therefore willingly believe what the Ancients have reported that Philosophy came from the Indies into Europe and that we have been more concerned at the insensibility of the Indians than the Indians have been at the wonders which our inquietude has produced in the discovery of so many different Arts whereof we flatter our selves perhaps to no purpose that necessity was the Mother But enough is spoken of the Siameses in general let us enter into the particulars of their manners according to their various conditions PART III. Of the Manners of the Siameses according to their several Conditions CHAP. I. Of the several Conditions among the Siameses AT Siam all Persons are either Freemen or Slaves Of the Slavery according to the Manners of Siam The Master has all power over the Slave except that of killing him And tho' some may report that Slaves are severely beaten there which is very probable in a Country where free persons are so rigidly bastinado'd yet the Slavery there is so gentile or if you will the Liberty is so abject that it is become a Proverb that the Siameses sell it to eat of a Fruit which they call Durions I have already said that they chuse rather to enjoy it than to enjoy none at all 'T is certain also that they dread Beggary more than Slavery and this makes me to think that Beggary is there as painful as ignominious and that the Siameses who express a great deal of Charity for Beasts even to the relieving them if they find any sick in the Fields have very little for the Men. They employ their Slaves in cultivating their Lands and Gardens In what the Slaves are employed and in some domestic Services or rather they permit them to work to gain their livelihood under a Tribute which they receive from four to eight Ticals a Year that is to say from seven Livres ten Sols to fifteen Livres One may be born or become a Slave One becomes so either for Debt A Siamese may be born or become a Slave as I have said or for having been taken Captive in War or for having been confiscated by Justice When one is made a Slave for Debt his Liberty returns again by making satisfaction but the Children born during this Slavery tho' it be but for a time continue Slaves One is born a Slave when born of a Mother-slave and in the Slavery How he is born a Slave and to whom he belongs the Children are divided as in the Divorce The first third fifth and all the rest in the odd number belong to the Master of the Mother the second fourth and all the others in the even rank belong to the Father if he is free or to his Master if he is a Slave 'T is true that it is necessary upon this account that the Father and Mother should have had Commerce together with the consent of the Master of the Mother for otherwise all the Children would belong to the Master of the Mother The difference of the King of Siam's Slaves from his Subjects of free condition is that he continually employs his Slaves in personal labours The difference between the King of Siam's Slaves and his other Subjects The Slaves of private men owe not any service to the King Of the Siamese Nobility and maintains them whereas his free Subjects only owe him six months service every Year but at their own expence In a word the Slaves of particular men owe not any service to that Prince and tho' for this Reason he loses a Freeman when this man falls into slavery either for Debt or to avoid Beggary yet this Prince opposes it not neither pretends any Indemnity upon this account Properly speaking there is not two sorts of Conditions among free persons Nobility is no other thing than the actual possession of Offices the Families which do long maintain themselves therein do become doubtless more illustrious and more powerful but they are rare and so soon as they have lost their Offices they have nothing which distinguishes them from the common People There is frequently seen at the Pagaye the Grandson of a Man who died a great Lord and sometimes his own Son Of the Priests or Talapoins The distinction between the People and the Priests is only an uncertain distinction seeing that one may continually pass from one of these States to the other The Priests are the Talapoins of whom we shall speak in the sequel Under the Name of People I comprehend whatever is not a Priest viz. the King Officers and People of whom we now proceed to speak CHAP. II. Of the Siamese People The Siamese people is a Militia THE Siamese People is a Militia where every particular person is registred They are all Souldiers in Siamese Taban and do all owe six Months service annually to their Prince It belongs to the Prince to arm them and give them Elephants or Horses if he would have them serve either on Elephants or on Horseback but it belongs to them to cloath and to maintain themselves And as the Prince never employs all his Subjects in his Armies and that oftentimes he sends no Army into the Field though he be at War with some of his Neighbours yet for six months in the year he employs in such a work or in such a service as pleases him those Subjects which he employs not in the War Is counted and divided into men on the right hand and on the left Wherefore to the end that no person may escape the personal service of the Prince there is kept an exact account of the People 'T is divided into men on the right hand and men on the left to the end that every one may know on what side he ought to range himself in his Functions And by Bands And besides this it is divided into Bands each of which
Cannon Touan a Lance after the Siamese fashion Stok a Zagaye or Lance after the Moors fashion 't is like the blade of a Sabre at the end of a Stick Dab a Sabre They have it carry'd by a Slave who holds it respectfully on his Right Shoulder as we carry the Musket on the Left Krid a Dagger which the King gives to the Mandarins They wear it thrust into a Girdle on the Left side but very much before The Europeans do corruptly call it Crist Kautar a Bow Lo a round Target Na-mai a Cross-bow mai signifies a Stick Lan a Dart. 'T is a Bambou arm'd with Iron Laou a Dart of Bambou harden'd in the fire without Iron Laou writ after another manner signifies all intoxicating Liquors Mai-taboug a Battle-axe Mai-taou a Trunchion The Names of the Days of the Months and of the Years of the Siameses The Dys VAn in Siamese signifies a Day The names of the Days are Van Athit Sunday Van Tchan Munday Van Angkaan the days of Mars or Tuesday Van Pout the day of Mercury or Wednesday Van Prahaat the day of Jupiter or Thursday Van Souc the day of Venus or Friday Van Saou the day of Saturn or Saturday The names of the Planets are therefore Athit Tchan Angkaan c. It is true they name not the Planets without the names of the Days without giving them the Title of Pra which as I have several times declared denotes a very great excellency Thus Pra Athit signifies the Sun Pra Tchan the Moon Pra Pra Prahaat Jupiter but the word Pra is written with a P. stronger than that which is in the first syllable of the word Prahaat In short all these names are of the Baly Tongue the Sun is called Tavan and the Moon Doen in Siamese Abraham Roger in his History of the Manners of the Bramines has given us the names of the Days in Samscortam which saith he is the learned Language of the Bramines of Paliacata on the Coast of Coromandel They are taken also from the Planets Suriawaram Sunday Jendrawaram Munday Angaracawaram Tuesday Buttawaram Wednesday Brahaspitawaram Thursday Succrawaram Friday Senniwaram Saturday It is evident that Waram signifies Day that Suria is the name of the Sun perhaps with some inflection to denote the Genitive and that Jendra is the name of the Moon perhaps also with some inflection which being taken away would leave some resemblance between this word and the Bali Tchan As to the other names Angaraca participates enough of Angkaan Butta which it is necessary to pronounce Boutta is no other than Pout Prahat agrees with the beginning of Brahaspita and Succra and Souc are the same word Senni and Saou appear more remote and Suria and Athit have nothing common but what the same Author adds is remarkable that Sunday is called Aditawaram in the vulgar Language of Paliacata for it is there that we do again find the Baly word Athit The Chinese according to Father Martinius in his Historia Sinica p. 31. do not name the Days by the Planets but by the sixty names which they give to the sixty Years of every Cycle so that their Week so to explain my self is a Revolution of sixty Days The Months The Siameses do call the Months in their Order Deuan signifies a Month Deuan ai the first Month. Deuan Tgij the second Month. Deuan Sam the third Month. Deuan Sii the Fourth Month. Deuan Haa the Fifth Month. Deuan Houk the Sixth Month. Deuan Ket the Seventh Month. Deuan Peet the Eighth Month. Deuan Caou the Ninth Month. Deuan Sib the Tenth Month. Deuan Sib the Eleventh Month. Deuan Sib-Song the Twelfth Month. The Siamese People understand not the Words Ai and Tgii which are the names of the two first Months but it is probable that these are two old numerical Words which signifie One and Two and this is evident from the Word Tgii because that the Siameses do say Tgii-Sib to signifie Twenty which verbatim is two Tens All the other names of Months are still in use to signifie Numbers with this difference that when they are put before the Substantive they signifie pure Numbers and that when they are plac'd after they become Names which denote Order Thus Sam Deuan signifies Three Months and Deuan Sam the Third Month. Pii signifies a Year The Twelve Names of the Year are The Years Pii ma mia the Year of the Little Mare Pii ma me the Year of the Great Mare Pii Vok the Year of the Ape Pii Rakaa the Year of the Crow Pii Tchio the Year of the Sheep Pii Counne the Year of the Pig Pii Chouat the Year of the Rabbet Pii Tchlou the Year of the Lizard Pii Kan the Year of the Hens Pii Tho the Year of the Goat Pii ma Rong the Year of the Sea-Gull Pii ma Seng the Year of the Great Serpent Most of these Names are also of the Balie Tongue Now as the Siameses do make use of the Cycle of Sixty Years they ought to have Sixty Names to name the Sixty Years of every Cycle and yet the Persons whom I have consulted could give me no more than Twelve which are repeated five times in every Cycle to arrive at the Number of Sixty But I doubt not that it is with some additions which do make the differences thereof and I think to find the proof thereof in two dates of Siamese Letters which I have carefully taken from the Originals The first is thus In the First Month the Ninth Day after the Full Moon in the Aera 2229 the Year Tchlou Sapsoc And the second is thus The Eighth Month and the First Day of the Moon 's Decrease in the Year Pii Tho Sapsoc of the Aera 2231. The Word Aera in these two dates simply signifies Year according to the Spanish language so that it is all one to say the Aera 2229 and to say the Year Tchlou Sapsoc to say the Aera 2231 and to say the Year Pii Tho Sapsoc Besides as the Word Pii signifies Year they might put Tho Sapsoc instead of Pii Tho Sapsoc as they have put Tchlou Sapsoc and not Pii Tchlou Sapsoc Now these two Years which are the Years 1685 and 1687 of Jesus Christ are not called simply either by Tchlou and Tho that is to say of the Lizard and Goat but to the Words Tchlou and Tho is added the Word Sapoc which I understand not and which was added to the Names of the Twelfth of the Years which run then to distinguish it from the four other Twelfths of the Years of the same Cycle Of the Monsons and Tides of the Gulph of Siam WE find upon our Seas that tho' the Winds be very variable yet they change with this almost infallible Rule of passing from the North to the South only by the East or from the South to the North only by the West or from the East to the West only by the South or from
our selves against the Cold under our Wastcoats he puts this Vest under the Shirt which I have described and which he adorns with Lace or European Point 'T is not lawful for any Siamese to wear this sort of Vest unless the King gives it him and he makes this Present only to the most considerable of his Officers A sort of Military Vest He sometimes also gives them another Vest or Garment of Scarlet which is to be worn only in War or at Hunting This Garment reaches to the Knees and has eight or ten Buttons before The Sleeves thereof are wide but without Ornament and so short that they touch not the Elbows The Red Colour for War and Hunting 'T is a general Custom at Siam that the Prince and all his Retinue in the War or Hunting be cloath'd in Red. Upon this account the Shirts which are given to the Soldiers are of Muslin dy'd Red and on the days of Ceremony as was that of the Entry of the King's Ambassadors these Red Shirts were given to the Siameses which they put under their Arms. The high and pointed Cap. The white high and pointed Cap which we saw on the Ambassadors of Siam is a Coif of Ceremony whereof the King of Siam and his Officers do equally make use but the King of Siam's Cap is adorn'd with a Circle or a Crown of precious Stones and those of his Officers are embellish'd with divers Circles of Gold Silver or Vermilion gilt to distinguish their Dignities or have not any Ornament The Officers wear them only before the King or in their Tribunals or in some Ceremony They fasten them with a Stay under their Chin and never pull them off to salute any person Babouches The Moors have introduc'd amongst them the use of Babouches or Slippers a kind of pointed Shoes without quarter or heel They leave them at the Gates of their own and others Houses to avoid dirtying the places where they enter But where-ever their King or any other person is to whom they owe Respect as is for instance a Sancrat or Superior of their Talapoins they appear not with Slippers The Neatness of the Palace of Siam Nothing is neater than the King of Siam's Palace as well by reason of the few persons admitted therein as of the Precautions with which they enter Hats for Travelling They esteem of Hats for Travelling and this Prince causes them to be made of all Colours in almost the same shape with his Bonnet but very few persons amongst the People vouchsafe to cover their Head against the heat of the Sun and they do it but with a linnen Clout and only when on the River where the Reflexion most incommodes The Habit of the Women The difference of the Womens Habit from the Mens is that the Women fastning their Pagne length-wise round their Bodies as likewise the Men do they let it fall down broad-ways and imitate a close Coat which reaches down half-way their Leg whereas the Men raise up their Pagne between their Thighs by pulling through one of the ends which they leave longer than the other and which they tie to the Girdle behind in which they do in some sort resemble our Breeches The other end of the Pagne hangs before and as they have no Pockets they do frequently tye thereunto their Purse for the Betel after the manner that we tye any thing in the corner of our Handkercheif They do sometimes also wear two Pagnes one over the other to the end that the uppermost may sit more neat A Nakedness almost entire Excepting the Pagne the Women go all naked for they have no Muslin Shifts only the Rich do constantly wear a Scarf They do sometimes wrap the ends thereof about their Arms but the best Air for them is to put it singly over their Bosom at the middle to make smooth the wrinkles thereof and to let the two ends hang down behind over their Shoulders Modesty in this Nakedness Nevertheless so great a Nudity renders them not immodest On the contrary the Men and Women of this Country are the most scrupulous in the world of shewing the parts of their Body which Custom obliges them to conceal The Women who sat stooping in their Balons the day of the King 's Ambassador's Entry turn'd for the most part their Backs to the Show and the most Curious hardly look'd over their Shoulder 'T was necessary to give the French Soldiers some Pagnes to wash in to remove the Complaints which these People made at seeing them go all naked into the River The Infants go there without a Pagne to four or five years of age but when once of that age they are never uncover'd to chastise them and in the East it is an exceeding Infamy to be beaten naked on the parts of the Body which are generally conceal'd 'T is from hence perhaps Why they chastise with the Cudgel that the use of the Cudgel sprang up amongst them in chastising by reason that neither the Whip nor the Rod would be sufficiently felt through their Cloaths Moreover they pluck not off their Cloaths to lie down Modesty in the Bed and also in the Bath or at least they only change the Pagne as they do to bathe themselves in the River The Women bathe themselves like the Men and do exercise themselves in swimming and in no part of the world do they swim better Their Modesty renders the Custom of Bathing almost insupportable unto them and few amongst them can resolve to do it Other Proofs of their Modesty They have affixt Infamy to Nakedness And they are no less careful about the Modesty of the Ears than of the Eyes seeing that impure and baudy Songs are prohibited by the Laws of Siam as well as by those of China Yet I cannot affirm that they may not be us'd at all for the Laws prohibit no other than the Excess already too much establish'd And from China there comes some Porcelane Figures and Paintings so immodest that they are no more permitted than the Baudiest Songs Those Pagnes that are of an extraordinary beauty and gaudiness What Pagnes are permitted as those of Silk with Embroidery or without Embroidery and those of painted Linnen very fine are permitted to those only to whom the Prince presents them The Women of Quality do greatly esteem the black Pagnes and their Scarf is frequently of plain white Muslin They wear Rings on the three last Fingers of each Hand Rings Bracelets Pendants and the Fashion permits them to put on as many as possibly can be kept on They freely give half a Crown for Rings with false Stones which at Paris cost not above two Sols They have no Necklaces to adorn their Necks nor their Wives but the Women and Children of both Sexes wear Pendants They are generally of Gold Silver or Vermilion gilt in the shape of a Pear The young Boys and Girls of a good Family
Window or a Terrace and by this means neither his Subjects nor Strangers do ever see him on Foot This Honour is only reserved for his Wives and Eunuchs when he is lock'd up within his Palace Their Sedans Their Chairs or Sedans are not like ours they are square and flat Seats more or less elevated which they place and fix on Biers Four or eight men for the Dignity herein consists in the Number do carry them on their naked Shoulders one or two to each Staff and other men relieve these Sometimes these Seats have a Back and Arms like our Chairs of State and sometimes they are simply compast except before with a small Ballister about half a Foot high but the Siameses do always place themselves cross-legged Sometimes these Seats are open sometimes they have an Imperial and these Imperials are of several sorts which I will describe in speaking of the Balons in the middle of which they do likewise place these Seats as well as on the backs of Elephants The Imperial not very honourable at Siam but the Parasol is As often as I have seen the King of Siam on an Elephant his Seat was without an Imperial and all open before At the sides and behind do rise up to the top of his Shoulders three great Foliages or Feathers gilt and bent outwards at the Point but when this Prince stops a Footman who stands ten or twelve paces from him shelters him from the Sun with a very high Umbrella like a Pike with the Head three or four Foot in Diameter and this is not a small fatigue when the Wind blows thereon This sort of Umbrella which is only for the King is called Pat-boouk A Mandarins Balon The Body of a Balon with it's Benches for the Pagayeurs or Rowers and the Alcove to fix the Mandarins seat A Pagaye or Oar The Balon of the Kings Envoys The Balon of the King of Siams Body wherein was the French King's Letter But because that in this Country they go more by Water than by Land The Carriage of the Balons the King of Siam has very fine Balons I have already said that the Body of a Balon is composed only of one single Tree sometimes from sixteen to twenty Fathom in length Two men sitting cross-leg'd by the side one of another on a Plank laid across are sufficient to take up the whole breadth thereof The one Pagayes at the right and the other on the left side Pagayer is to row with the Pagaye and the Pagaye is a short Oar which one holds with both hands by the middle and at the end It seems that he can only sweep the water though with force It is not fixed to the edge of the Balon and he that manages it looks where he goes whereas he that rows turns his back to his Road. In a single Balon there are sometimes an hundred An exact Description of a Balon or an hundred and twenty Pagayeurs thus ranged two and two with their Legs crossed on Plancks but the inferior Officers have Balons a great deal shorter where few Pagayes or Oars as sixteen or twenty do suffice The Pagayeurs or Rowers do strike the Pagaye in Consort do sing or make some measured Noises and they plunge the Pagaye in a just cadence with a motion of the Arms and Shoulders which is vigorous but easy and graceful The weight of this Bank of Oars serves as Ballast to the Balon and keeps it almost even with the water which is the reason that the Pagayes are very short And the Impression which the Balon receives from so many men which vigorously plunge the Pagaye at the same time makes it always totter with a motion which pleases the Eye and which is observ'd much more at the Poop and Prow because they are higher and like to the Neck and Tail of some of Dragon or some monstrous Fish of which the Pagayes on either side shew like the Wings or the Fins At the Prow one single Pagayeur takes up the first Rank without having any Comrade at his side He has not room enough to cross his left Leg with his right and he is forced to stretch it out over an end of a stick which proceeds from the side of the Prow 'T is this first Pagayeur that gives the motion to all the rest His Pagaye is somewhat longer by reason that he is posted in that place where the Prow begins to rise and that he is so much the further from the Water He plunges the Pagaye once to every measure and when it is necessary to go swifter he plunges it twice and lifting up the Pagaye continually and only for decency with a shout he throws the water a great way and the next stroak all the Equipage imitates him The Pilot stands always at the Poop where it rises exceedingly The Rudder is a very long Pagaye which is not fixed to the Balon and to which the Steersman seems to give no other Motion than to keep it truly perpendicular in the water and against the edge of the Balon sometimes on the right side and sometimes on the left The Women Slaves do row the Ladies Balons In the Balons of ordinary service wherein there are fewer Pagayeurs Several sorts of Balons there is in the middle a Cabin of Bambou or other Wood without Painting or Varnish in which a whole Family may be held and sometimes this Cabin has a lower Pent-house be fore under which the Slaves are and many of the Siameses have no other Habitation But in the Balons of Ceremony or in those of the King of Siam's body which the Portuguese have called Balons of State there is in the middle but one Seat which takes up almost the whole breadth of the Balon and wherein there is only one Person and his Arms the Sabre and Lance. If it is an ordinary Mandarin he has only a single Umbrella like ours to shelter himself if it is a more considerable Mandarin besides that his Seat is higher he is covered with what the Portugueses call Chirole and the Siameses Coup 'T is an Arbor all open before and behind made of Bambous cleft and interlac'd and cover'd within and without with a black or red Varnish The red Varnish is for the Mandarins at the right hand the black for those of the left a distinction which I shall explain in its due place Besides this the extremities of the Chirole are gilded on the outside the breadth of three or four Inches and some pretend that 't is in the fashion of these gildings which are not plain but like Embroidery that the Marks of the Mandarins Dignity are There are also some Chiroles cover'd with Stuff but they serve not for many weather He that commands the Equipage sometimes cudgels but very rarely those which row softly and out of measure places himself cross-leg'd before the Mandarins Seat on the extremity of the Table on which the Seat is fixed But if the
his place to him whom he receives at his House and invites him to accept it He afterwards serves him with Fruit and Preserves and sometimes with Rice and Fish and more especially he with his own hand presents him with Arek and Betel and Tea The common People forget not Arek and Persons of Quality do sometimes accommodate themselves therewith At the end of the Visit the Stranger first testifies that he will go as amongst us and the Master of the House consents thereto with very obliging Expressions To what degree the highest place is the most honourable and he must be greatly superior to him that renders him the Visit to bid him depart The highest place is so far the most honourable according to them that they dared not to go into the first Story even for the service of the House when the Kings Ambassadors were in the lower Hall In the Houses which strangers do build of Brick above one story they observe that the undermost part of the Stairs never serves for a passage for fear lest any one should go under the feet of another that ascends but the Siameses build no more than one story by reason that the bottom would be useless to them no person amongst them being willing either to go or lodge under the feet of another For this reason though the Siamese Houses be erected on Piles they never make use of the under part not so much as in the Kings House whose Palace being uneven has some pieces higher than others the under part of which might be inhabited I remember that when the Ambassadors of Siam came to an Inn near Vincennes the first Ambassador being lodged in the first story and the others in the second the second Ambassador perceiving that he was above the King his Masters Letter which the first Ambassador had with him ran hastily out of his Chamber bewailing his offence and tearing his hair in despair The right hand more honourable then the left at Siam At Siam the right hand is more honourable than the left the floor of the Chamber opposite to the door is more honourable than the sides and the sides more than the wall where the door is and the wall which is on the right hand of him that sits on the floor is more honourable than that which is on his left hand Thus in the Tribunals no person sits on the Bench fixed to the wall which is directly opposite to the door save the President who alone has a determinative Vote The Councellors who only have a Consultative Vote are seated on other lower Benches along the side-walls and the other Officers along the wall of the door After the same manner if any one receives an important visit he places the Visitor alone on the floor of the Chamber and seats himself with his back towards the door or towards one of the sides of the Chamber Why the Cities at China are all after one Model These Ceremonies and a great many others are so precise at China that it is necessary that the Entries of the Houses and the Rooms where particular persons receive their Visits and those where they entertain their Friends be all after one model to be able to observe the same Civilities But this Uniformity of building and of turning the buildings to the South so that they front the North in their entering in has been much more indispensible in the Tribunals and in all the other publick houses insomuch that whoever sees one City in this great Kingdom sees them all The exactness of the Siameses in their Ceremonies Now Ceremonies are as essential and almost as numerous at Siam as at China A Mandarin carries himself one way before his Inferiors and another way before his Superiors If there are several Siameses together and there unexpectedly comes in another it frequently happens that the posture of all changes They know before whom and to what degree they must keep themselves inclined or strait or sitting whether they must joyn their hands or not and keep them high or low whether being seated they may advance one Foot or both or whether they must keep them both conceal'd by sitting on their heels And the miscarriages in these sorts of duties may be punished with the cudgel by him to whom they are committed or by his orders and on the spot So that there is not introduced amongst them those Airs of familiarity which in diversions do attract rudeness injuries blows and quarrels and sometimes intemperance and impudence they are always restrained by reciprocal respects What some report concerning the Chinese Hat is a thing very pleasant It has no brim before nor behind but only at the sides and this brim which terminates in an oval is so little fastened to the body of the Hat that it flaps and renders a man ridiculous at the least irregular motion which he makes of his head Thus these people have imagined that the less men are at ease the fewer faults they commit They are accustomed thereunto from their infancy But all these forms which seem to us very troublesom appear not so to them by reason they are early accustomed thereunto Custom renders the distinctions less severe to them than they would be to us and much more the thoughts that they may enjoy it in their turn He that is Superior or Inferior to day changing his condition to morrow according to the Prudence or the Capricious Humor of the Prince The hereditary distinctions which the Birth does here give to so many persons who are sometimes without merit will not appear less hard to undergo to him who should not be thereto accustomed or who should not comprehend that the most precious recompence of Vertue is that which one hopes to transmit to his posterity The Custom is therefore at Siam and China How the great men dispense with these in their Inferiors that when the Superior would discreetly manage the Inferior and testify a great deal of consideration for him as it sometimes happens in the intrigues of Court the Superior affects publickly to avoid the meeting the Inferior to spare him the publick submissions with which he could not dispense if they should meet him Moreover affability towards Inferiors Easiness of access or going before them do pass for weakness in the Indies The Siameses constrain not themselves to belching in conversation Certain things incident amongst us are not so amongst them and on the contrary neither turn they aside their face or put any thing before their mouth no more than the Spaniards 'T is no incivility amongst them to wipe off the Sweat of their forehead with their Fingers and then to shake them against the ground For this purpose we use a Handkercheif and few of the Siameses have any which is the reason why they very slovenly perform every thing whereunto the Handkercheif is necessary They dare to spit neither on the Mats nor the Carpets and because they
are in all houses a little furnished they make use of spitting-pots which they carry in their hand In the Kings Palace they neither cough nor spit nor wipe their Nose The Betel which they continually chew and the juice of which they swallow at pleasure hinders them Nevertheless they cannot take Betel in the Prince's presence but only continue to chew that which they have already in their Mouth They refuse nothing that is offered them and dare not to say I have enough As the most eminent place is always amongst them the most honourable What is the greatest Affront among the Siameses the head as the highest part of the body is also the most respected To touch any person on the head or the hair or to stroke ones hand over the head is to offer him the greatest of all affronts To touch his Bonnet if he leaves it any where is a great incivility The mode of this Country amongst the Europeans which dwell there is never to leave their Hat in a low place but to give it to a Servant who carries it higher than his Head at the end of a Stick and without touching it and this Stick has a foot to the end that it may stand up if he that carries it be obliged to leave it The most respectful or to say better the most humble posture What postures are more or less respectful is that in which they do all keep themselves continually before their King in which they express to him more respect than the Chineses do to theirs They keep themselves prostrate on their knees and elbows with their hands joyned at the top of their forehead and their body seated on their heels to the end that they may lean less on their elbows and that it may be possible without assisting themselves with their hands but keeping them still joyned to the top of their forehead to raise themselves on their knees and fall again upon their elbows as they do thrice together as often as they would speak to their King I have remark'd that when they are thus prostrate they lean their back-part on one side or other as much as possibly they can without displacing their knees as it were to lessen and undervalue themselves the more By the same principle it is not only more honourable according to them to be seated on a high seat than on a low seat but it is much more honourable to be standing than sitting When Mr. de Chaumont had his first audience it was necessary that the French Gentlemen which accompany'd him should enter first into the Hall and seat themselves on their heels before the King of Siam appeared to the end that this Prince might not see them a moment standing They were prohibited to rise up to salute him when he appeared This Prince never suffered the Bishops nor the Jesuits to appear standing before him in the Audiences It is not permitted to stand in any place of the Palace unless while walking and if in this last Voyage of 1687 at the first audience of the Kings Ambassadors the French Gentlemen had the honour of entring when the King of Siam was already visible it was only because the Mandarins which had accompanied the Ambassadors of Siam into France were admitted into the Gallery of Versailles when the King was seated on the Throne which he had erected there How the King of Siam accomodates the Ceremonies of his Court to those of the Court of France The King of Siam had that respect for the King of France as to acquaint him by Mr. de Chaumont that if there was any Custom in his Court which was not in the Court of France he would alter it and when the King's Ambassadors arrived in this Country the King of Siam affected indeed to make them a Reception different in several things from that which he had made to Mr. de Chaumont to conform it the more to that which he understood the King had made to his Ambassadors He did one thing when Mr. des Farges saluted him which never had any Precedent at Siam for he commanded that all the Officers of his Court should stand in his presence as did Mr. des Farges and the other French Officers which accompany'd him Why I chose to speak to the King of Siam rather standing than sitting Remembring therefore that Mr. de Chaumont had demanded to compliment him sitting and knowing that his Ambassadors had spoken standing to the King an Honour which he highly esteem'd he informed me that he would grant me the liberty to speak to him sitting or standing and I chose to deliver all my Compliments standing And if I could have raised my self higher I should have received more Honour 'T was in the King of Siam as they informed me a mark of respect for the King's Letters not to receive them standing but sitting Another Siamese Civility To lay a thing upon one's head which is given or received is at Siam and in a great many other Countries a very great mark of respect The Spaniards for Example are obliged by an express Law to render this respect to the Cedules or written Orders which they receive from their King The King of Siam was pleas'd to see me put the King's Letter on my head in delivering it to him he cry'd out and demanded Where I had learnt that Civility us'd in his Country He had lifted up to his Forehead the King's Letter which Mr. de Chaumont deliver'd him but understanding by the report of his Ambassadors that this Civility was not known in the Court of France he omitted it in regard of the King's Letter which I had the Honour to deliver him The manner of saluting among the Siameses When a Siamese salutes he lifts up either both his hands join'd or at least his right hand to the top of his forehead as it were to put him whom he salutes on his head As often as they take the liberty to answer to their King they always begin again with these words Pra pouti Tchaou-ca co rap pra ouncan sai claou sai cramom That is to say High and Mighty Lord of me thy Slave I desire to take thy Royal Word and put it on my Brain and on the top of my Head And it is from these words Tchaou-ca which signifie Lord of me thy Slave that amongst the French is sprung up this way of speaking faire choca to signifie Ta vai bang com or to prostrate himself after the Siamese manner Faire la Zombaye to the King of Siam signifies to present him a Petition which cannot be done without performing the cocha I know not from whence the Portugueses have borrow'd this way of speaking If you stretch out your hand to a Siamese to take hold on his he puts both his hands underneath yours as to put himself entirely into your power 'T is an Incivility in their opinion to give only one hand as also not to hold
The Elephants and Horses of the Palace In the first Inclosures are likewise the Stables of the Elephants and Horses which the King of Siam esteems the best and which are called Elephants and Horses by Name because that this King gives them a Name as he gives to all the Officers within his Palace and to the important Officers of the State which in this are very much distinguished from the Officers on whom he imposes none He that hath the care of the Horses either for their maintenance or to train them up and who is as it were the chief Querry is called Oc Louang Tchoumpon his Belat or Lieutenant is Oc-Meuing Si Sing Toup Pa-tchat but he alone has the Priviledge of speaking to the King Neither his Belat nor his other inferior Officers do speak unto him The Elephants of Name The Elephants of Name are treated with more or less Dignity according to the more or less honourable Name they bear but every one of them has several Men at his Service They stir not out as I have elsewhere declared without trappings and because that all the Elephants of Name cannot be kept within the Compass of the Palace there are some which have their Stables close by Of the White Elephant These People have naturally so great an esteem of Elephants that they are perswaded that an Animal so noble so strong and so docile can be animated only with an illustrious Soul which has formerly been in the body of some Prince or of some great Person but they have yet a much higher Idea of the White Elephants These Animals are rare and are found say they only in the Woods of Siam They are not altogether White but of a flesh colour and for this reason it is that Vliet in the Title of his Relation has said the White and Red Elephant The Siameses do call this colour Peuak and I doubt not that it is this colour inclining to White and moreover so rare in this Animal which has procur'd it the Veneration of those People to such a degree as to perswade them what they report thereof that a Soul of some Prince is always lodged in the body of a White Elephant whether Male or Female it matters not The Esteem which the Siameses do make of the White colour in Animals By the same reason of the colour White Horses are those which the Siameses most esteem I proceed to give a proof thereof The King of Siam having one of his Horses sick intreated Mr. Vincent that Physician which I have frequently mentioned to prescribe him some Remedy And to perswade him to it for he well knew that the European Physicians debased not themselves to meddle with Beasts he acquainted him that the Horse was Mogol that is to say White of four races by Sire and Dam without any mixture of Indian blood and that had it not been for this consideration he would not have made him this request The Indians call the White Mogols which they distinguish into Mogols of Asia and Mogols of Europe Therefore whence soever this respect is for the White colour as well in Men as in Beasts I could discover no other reason at Siam than that of the veneration which the Siameses have for the White Elephants Next to the White they most esteem those which are quite Black because they are likewise very rare and they Dye some of this colour when they are not naturally Black enough The King of Siam always keeps a White Elephant in his Palace which is treated like the King of all those Elephants which this Prince maintains That which Mr. de Chaumont saw in this Country was dead as I have said when we arrived there There was born another as they reported on the 9th of December 1687. a few days before our departure but this Elephant was still in the Woods and received no Visit and so we saw no White Elephant Other Relations have informed us how this Animal is served with Vessels of Gold The King of Siam's Balons The Care of the King's Balons and of his Gallies belongs to the Calla-hom Their Arsenal is over against the Palace the River running between There every one of these Barges is lock'd up in a Trench whereinto runs the Water of the River and each Trench is shut up in an Inclosure made of Wood and covered These Inclosures are locked up and besides this a person watches there at Night The Balons of ordinary Service are not so adorned as those for Ceremony and amongst those for Ceremony there are some which the King gives to his Officers for these occasions only for those which he allows them for ordinary Ceremonies are less curious and fine CHAP. XII Of the Officers which nearest approach the King of Siam's Person IN the Vang are some of those single Halls which I have described In what place of the Palace the Courtiers wait How the King of Siam shows himself to them in which the Officers do meet either for their Functions or to make their Court or to wait the Orders of the Prince The usual place were he shows himself unto them is the Hall where he gave Audience to the King's Ambassadors and he shows himself only through a Window as did antiently the King of China This Window is from a higher Chamber which has this prospect over the Hall and which may be said to be of the first Story It is nine Foot high or thereabouts and it was necessary to place three steps underneath to raise me high enough to present the King's Letter to the King of Siam This Prince chose rather to cause these three steps to be put than to see himself again obliged to stoop to take the King's Letter from my hand as he had been obliged to do to take that which Mr. de Chaumont deliver'd him 'T is evident by the Relation of Mr. de Chaumont that he had in his hands a kind of Gold Cup which had a very long handle of the same matter to the end that he might use it to give the King's Letter to the King of Siam He did it but he would not take this Cup by the handle to raise the Letter so that it was necessary that the King of Siam should stoop out of the Window to receive it 'T is with the same Cup that the Officers of this Prince deliver him every thing that he receives from their hands At the two Corners of the Hall which are at the sides of this Window are two doors about the heighth of the Windows and two pair of very narrow Stairs to ascend For the Furniture there is only three Vmbrella's one before the Window with nine rounds and two with seven rounds on both sides of the Window The Vmbrella is in this Country as the Daiz or Canopy is in France 'T is in this Hall that the King of Siam's Officers which if you please The King of Siam's Pages may be named from his Chamber
Presents are essential for them in Embassies 'T is a trafficking under an honourable Title and from King to King Their Politeness excites them to testify by several Demonstrations how they esteem the Presents which they have received If it is any thing of use tho' it be not for their use they publickly prepare whatever shall be necessary to use it as if they had a real desire thereof If it is any thing to wear they will adorn themselves therewith in your presence If they are Horses they will build a Stable on purpose to lodge them Was it only a Telescope they would build a Tower to see with this Glass And so they will seem to make an high account of all sorts of Presents to honour the Prince which sends them unless he has received Presents from their part with less demonstrations of Esteem Nevertheless they are really concern'd only for the Profit Before that the King's Presents went out of our hands some of the King of Siam's Officers came to take an exact description thereof in writing even to the counting all the Stones of every sort which were interspers'd in the Embroideries and to the end that it might not seem that the King their Master took this care to prevent being robbed by his Officers through whose hands the Presents were to pass they pretended that this Prince was curious and impatient and that it was necessary to go render him an account of what this was and to be ready to answer him exactly upon the least things The Orientals do esteem it a great Honour to receive Embassies All the Oriental Princes do esteem it a great Honour to receive Embassies and to send the fewest they can Because that in their Opinion it is a Badge which cannot be alien'd from them and their Riches and that they can content themselves without the Riches of Foreigners They look upon Embassies as a kind of Homage and in their Courts they retain the Foreign Ministers as long as it is possible to prolong as much as in them lies the Honour which they receive Thus the great Mogul and the Kings of China and Japan do never send Ambassadors The King of Persia likewise sends only to Siam because that the King of Siam's Ambassador had demanded it as I proceed to relate The Siamese Ambassadors are accountable The Siamese Ambassadors are accountable because that they are loaded with Goods and it rarely happens that they render an Account good enough entirely to avoid the Bastinado Thus Agi Selim 't is the name of a Moor whom the King of Siam sent eight or nine years since into Persia as his Ambassador was severely chastised at his return tho' in appearance he had served very faithfully He had established Commerce with Persia and had brought with him that Persian Ambassador who as I have several times related dyed at Tenasserim He was a Moula or Doctor of the Law of Mahomet whom Agi Selim had demanded of the King of Persia to instruct as he pretended the King of Siam in Mahumetanism Bernier Tome II. pag. 54. reports that during his abode in the Indies some Ambassadors from Prester John who as every one knows professes to be a Christian demanded of the great Mogul an Alcoran and eight of the most renowned Books that were in the Mahumetan Religion a base Flattery which exceedingly scandalized Bernier But generally speaking these trading Kings do exceedingly make use of the pretence of Religion for the increase of their Commerce Explication of the Platform of the Hall of Audience of Siam A Three Steps which are placed under the Window where the King of Siam was to raise me high enough to deliver him the King's Letter from hand to hand B Three Parasols or Vmbrella's C Two pair of Stairs to go up into the place where the King of Siam was D Two Tables covered with Tapestry on which were laid the King's Present which could be held there E The Son of Mr. Ceberet standing holding the King's Letter in a Gold Bason of Filigreen with a triple Story the Figure of which is seen at Page F Two little square and low Stools each covered with a little Carpet for the King's Envoys to sit on Monsieur de Chaumont had such another G The Bishop of Metellopolis Apostolick Vicar sitting cross-legg'd H Monsieur Constance prostrate at my right hand and behind me to serve as my Interpreter I Father Tachart sitting cross-legg'd K Fifty Mandarins prostrate L The French Gentlemen sitting with their Legs across M A little pair of Brick Stairs to go up to the Hall of Audience N The Wall whereunto this pair of Stairs is fixed The Explication of the Platform of the Temple which should have been inserted in Chap. 2. Part 2. A The Steps before the Gates of the Temple B The principal Gate C The two Gates behind D The Piles of Wood which bear the Roof E The Piles of Wood which bear before and behind the Temple FF The Altar G The Figure of Sommona-Codam taking up the all the forepart of the Altar HH The Statues of Pra Mogla and of Pra Sarabout less and lower than the first III Other Stautes lesser than the former K. Steps to ascend on the Altar which is a Mass built with Bricks about 4 Foot high CHAP. XVI Of the Foreigners of different Nations fled to and setled at Siam The Policy observed in respect of the Strangers fled to Siam 'T Was as I have said the Liberty of Commerce which had formerly invited to Siam a great multitude of Strangers of different Nations who settled there with the Liberty of living according to their Customs and of publickly exercising their several ways of Worship Every Nation possesses a different Quarter The Quarters which are without the City and which do compose the Suburbs thereof the Portugueses do call Camp and the Siameses Ban. Moreover every Nation chooses its Chief or its Nai as the Siameses do speak and this Chief manages the Affairs of his Nation with the Mandarin whom the King of Siam nominates for this purpose and whom they call the Mandarin of this Nation But Affairs of the least importance are not determined by this Mandarin they are carried to the Barcalon The Fortune of the Moors very different at Siam at several times Amongst the several Nations that of the Moors has been the best established under this Reign It once hapned that the Barcalon was a Moor probably because the King of Siam thought by this means better to establish his Commerce amongst the most powerful of his Neighbouring Princes who do all make profession of Mahumetanism The principal Offices of the Court and of the Provinces were then in the hands of the Moors The King of Siam caused several Mosques to be erected for them at his expence and he still bears the charges of their principal Festival which they celebrate for several days together in memory of the Death of Haly or of his Children
in my opinion more delicate At one end they stick to a pulp which invelops them all and separates them one from the other It is easily torn off according to the course of its fibres it is yellow juicy clammy and glutinous of a sweet taste and strong smell It is not possible to chew it they only suck it They gave us a Fruit like to Plums and we at the first appearance were deceived It had the pulp and taste of a Medler and sometimes two sometimes three stones but bigger flatter and smoother than the Medler has them This Fruit is called Moussida in Siamese The Ox-heart was so named by reason of its size and shape The Skin thereof is thin and this Fruit is soft because that on the inside it is only a kind of white Cream and of a very agreeable taste The Siameses do call it Mancout The Durion in Siamese Tourrion which is a Fruit very much esteem'd in the Indies appear'd insupportable to me for its ill smell This Fruit is of the size of our Melons cover'd with a prickly Coat like our Chestnuts It has also like the Jacques several stones but as big as Eggs in which is contained what they eat in the inside of which there is also another stone The fewer there is of these stones in a Durion the more pleasant the Fruit is There never is less than three The Mango in Siamese Ma-mouan participates at first of the taste of the Peach and the Apricot toward the end this taste waxes stronger and less agreeable The Mango's are highly esteem'd I have seen some as big as a Child's hand they are flat and oval but pointed at the two ends almost like our Almonds Their Skin is of the consistence of that of our Peaches of colour inclining to yellow but their meat is only a pulp which must be suck'd and which quits not a great flat stone which it envelops I have not seen the Mangoustan which is said to be much better than the Mango's The Siameses have some sharp Fruits which quench the thirst and which upon this account appear'd unto me the most agreeable of all They are small as Plums and have a stone encompast with a white pulp which easily melts in the mouth The Tamarinde is also sharp 'T is a Fruit enclosed in a shell like an Almond and then several of these Fruits are likewise included in a Cod. I preserved some and found the Syrup thereof very pleasant during my return but by little and little it lost its sharpness and there remain'd only the taste of the Pimpernel The Tree which bears it and which is very large has a Leaf resembling Pimpernel From this Country I brought several sorts of liquid Sweet-meats which were come from China to Siam about two years and they ceased not to keep very well to Paris The Syrup especially was very good and had nothing of Candy notwithstanding the heat of the Climats through which it had passed These Sweet-meats had perhaps been made with Sugar-candy whith is the sole Purifier that the Orientals have I refer my self to the Confectioners I speak not of the Sugar-canes wherewith Siam abounds nor of the Pepper because I saw none thereof The King of Siam they say has caused an hundred thousand thereof to be planted 'T is a Plant which needs Props like the Vine and the Pepper hangs thereon also by little Bunches like to those of Currents The Ananas in Siamese Saparot has the meat white and the taste of our Peaches It s meat is mixed with a little wood not a wood which separates as there is in our Nuts but with a wood that adheres thereto and which is only the meat over-hardned and it is at the Center that it begins to grow hard The Ananas is believed unwholsom because that its juice they say corrodes Iron It is yellow when it is ripe and then to smell it without opening it it has the scent of a roasted Apple It s Figure is like a great Pine Apple it has little rindes curiously ranged under which to behold them one would think that the kernels are The Plant which produces it bears it at the top of its stalk which is not three foot high The Ananas keeps directly upon the little end and at the great end there is a tuft of Leaves like little Corn-flags short bent outwards and toothed Sometimes from the body of this Fruit and at the sides there grows like Wens one or two other little Ananas which have also their Tufts Now every Tuft cut and put in the ground may produce another Ananas but every Plant bears only one and bears no more than once The Coco in Siamese Ma-praou is a kind of Filbert but much bigger indeed than a Filbert as may be seen by those Cups of Coco which they sell us 'T is the wood thereof which is naturally cover'd like that of our Nuts with a brou or green bark an inch thick and full of fibres whereof Cordages may be made In the wood of the Coco is a very pleasant liquor and the wood thereof is so full that it spurts a great way when it is pierced As this Fruit ripens this liquor congeals at the extremities that is to say near the wood and there forms a Nut very white and of a very good taste the water which is not yet congealed remains still at the Center of the Fruit and at length it all congeals Of the Siamese and Balie Languages THE Siamese Tongue has Thirty seven Letters and the Baly Thirty three but they are all Consonants As to the Vowels and Dipthongs of which there is a great number in the one and the other Language they have indeed some particular Characters whereof are made other Alphabets but of these Characters some are placed always before the Consonant some others always after others above others underneath and yet all these Vowels and all these Dipthongs thus variously disposed in respect of the Consonant must only be pronounced after it But if in the Pronunciation the Syllable begins with a Vowel or with a Dipthong or if it is only a pure Vowel or a pure Dipthong then they have a mute Character which supplys the place of a Consonant and which must not be pronounced This mute Character is the last in the two Alphabets the Siamese and Balie In the Siamese it has the figure of our o and indeed it countervails an o when it must be pronounced and not be a mute Consonant that is to say when it is preceeded with a Consonant or by it self In the Balie Alphabet this last Character countervails ang when it is not a mute Consonant but its figure has no resemblance to any one of our Letters Thus the first Letter of the Hebrew Alphabet which is Aleph serves as a mute Consonant in relation to which they place the Points which are the Vowels and it is probable that the Aleph was anciently pronounced like the Alpha of the