mouth of their River when the Sea is retired but as the Fire never consumes all and as it principally spares the Bones the Siameses and Peguins do put these remains of their Kings under Pyramids These Pyramids are called Pra Tchiai di Pra is that Baly Term which I have frequently mentioned Tchiai-di signifies Good Heart that is to say Contentment as I have explained it in the other part So that Pra Tchiai-di amounts to these words sacred repose as much as those of Repose and Contentment do resemble From whence came the fancy of Pyramids for Tombs A Tomb quite flat like ours would not in their opinion be honourable enough they must have something of Eminence and this is the fancy of the Pyramids of Aegypt and the Mausolea Some People yet more vain have joyned Epitaphs thereto and because that time effaces the Inscriptions which are exposed to view others have secretly put their names on the principal Stones of certain stately edifices So that when they are discovered their work is already demolished to the Foundation The Siameses still keep to the first degree of Vanity which is single Pyramids without any Epitaph and so slightly erected that those which last longest do never last an Age. Why the Siameses love to build Temples Those that have neither Temple nor Pyramid do sometimes keep at their house the ill burnt remains of their Parents But there hardly is a Siamese rich enough to build a Temple who does it not and who buries not the Riches he has remaining The Temples are inviolable Sanctuaries as I have said and the Kings of Siam as well as particular persons commit their Treasures to them I know that the Siameses have demanded some smooth Files of the Europeans to cut the great Iron Bars which linked the Stones in the Temples under which there was Gold concealed The Siameses which have not wherewith to build a Temple cease not at least to make some Idol which they give to some of the Temples already built Which in these People is a sentiment of Vanity or Religion whereas the building of Temples may be as much the Interest of preserving their Riches to their Family as any other thing The Poor interr their Parents without burning them The Funerals of the Poor but if it is possible for them they invite the Talapoins who stir not without a Gratuity Those that have not wherewithal to pay the Talapoins do think they do honor enough to their dead Parents to expose them in the Field on an eminent place that is to say on a Scaffold where the Vulturs and the Crows devour them I have already said Funeral honors retarded that in Epidemical Distempers they bury the Bodies without burning them and that they dig them up and burn them some years after when they think all the danger of the Infection is past But they never burn those that Justice cuts off nor Infants dead-born Those that are deprived of Funeral Honors nor Women that die in Child-bed nor those which drown themselves or which perish by any other extraordinary disaster as by a Thunderbolt They rank these unfortunate persons amongst the guilty because they believe that such Misfortunes never happen to innocent Persons Mourning at China is prescirbed by the Law Mourning and that for the Father and Mother lasts three years and deprives or bereaves the Son during this time of all sorts of publick Employment if it is not Military though to me it seems that this exception as to Millitary Employments is a late establishment On the contrary the Siameses have no forced Mourning they give marks of Sorrow only as much as they are Afflicted so that it is more common at Siam that the Father and the Mother put on Mourning for their Children than that the Children wear it for their Father and Mother Sometimes the Father turns Talapoin and the Mother Talapoinesse or at least they shave the head one of the other but there is only the true Talapoins that can likewise shave the Eye-brows To me it appeared not that the Siameses invoke their dead Parents Whether the Siameses pray to the Dead what enquiry soever I have made upon it but they cease not to believe themselves frequently tormented with their Apparitions and then they carry Viands to their Tombs which the Beasts do eat and they give Alms for them to the Talapoins because they think that Charity is a Ransom for the Sins of the dead as well as of the living Besides this the Siameses almost on all occasions do offer up Prayers to the good Genij and imprecations against the bad of which I have already given some examples And these Genij are certainly in their opinion only Souls all as I have said of the same Nature The wicked Genij are the Souls of those which dye How it must be understood that the Souls of the Good are changed into Angels and the Souls of the wicked into Devils either by the hand of Justice or by some of those extraordinary misfortunes which make them to be judged unworthy of Funeral Honors The good Genij are all the other Souls esteemed more or less good according as they have been more or less Virtuous in this life And this wholly resembles the Opinion of Plato who requires that one should adhere to Vertue during life to the end that the custom thereof may continue after death This amounts likewise to that Antient Opinion which was spread also amongst some of the Antient Christians that the Souls of the good are changed into Angels and the Souls of the wicked into Devils But amongst the Indians this doctrine is no other than that the Souls of the good spring up again after Death in one of those places which the Portugueses have called Paradice and the Souls of the wicked in one of those other places which they do call Hell Some continuing to be good after Death do good to men others continuing to be wicked do hurt to men and every thing else as much as they can And who knows whether these several Paradices which they believe are not a confused remembrance of the several Orders of the Celestial Spirits Now through an incredible blindness The Indians have no God which is the Judge of Humane Actions the Indians admit not any Intelligent Being which judges of the goodness or badness of Humane actions and which orders the Punishment or Recompence thereof Upon this account they admit only a blind fatalility which say they is the reason that Prosperity accompanies Vertue and Misfortune Vice as it determines heavy things to descend and light things to ascend And because that nothing more repugns reason than to suppose an exact Justice in chance or in the Necessity of Fate the Indian People incline themselves to believe something Corporeal in good or bad works which they say has the power of doing unto men the Good or Evil which they deserve But since we
of having children at twelve years of Age At what Age they marry them and sometimes sooner and the greatest part have none past forty The Custom is therefore to marry them very young and the Boys in proportion Yet there is found some Siameses who disdain Marriage all their life but there is not any that can turn Talapoinesse that is to say consecrate her self to a Religious life who is not advanc'd in years When a Marriage is design'd How a Siamese seeks a Maid in Marriage and how their Marriage is concluded the Parents of the young man demand the Maid of her Parents by women advanced in years and of good Reputation If the Parents of the Maid have any inclination thereunto they return a favourable Answer Nevertheless they reserve unto themselves the liberty of consulting first the mind of their Daughter and at the same time they take the hour of the young mans Nativity and give that of the Birth of the Maid and both sides go to the Southsayers to know principally whether the Party proposed is rich and whether the Marriage will continue till death without a divorce As every one carefully conceals his riches to secure them from the oppression of the Magistrate and the Covetuousness of the Prince it is necessaty that they go to the Southsayer to know whether a Family is rich and it is upon the advice of the Southsayers that they take their Resolution If the Marriage must be concluded the young man goes to visit the Lady three times and carries her some presents of Betel and Fruit and nothing more precious At the third Visit the Relations on both sides appear there likewise and they count the Portion of the Bride and what is given to the Bridegroom to whom the whole is delivered upon the spot and in presence of the Relations but without any writing The new married couple do also commonly receive on this occasion some presents from their Uncles and from that time and without any Religious Ceremony the Bridegroom has a right to consummate the Marriage The Talapoins are prohibited to be present thereat Only some days after they go to the house of the New Married folks to sprinkle some Holy-water and to repeat some Prayers in the Baly-Tongue The Wedding as in all other places is attended with Feasts and shows The Nuptial Feast They do hire and invite profest Dancers thereunto but neither the Bridegroom nor the Bride nor any of the Guests do dance The Feast is made at the house of the Brides Relations where the Bridegroom takes care to build an Hall on purpose which stands alone And from thence the new married persons are conducted into another single Building built also on purpose at the expence and care of the Bridegroom in the Inclosure of Bambou which makes the Inclosure of the House of the Brides Relations The new married persons continue there some Months and then go to settle where it pleases them best to build an House for themselves A singular Ornament for the Daughters of the Mandarins which are married is to put on their head that Circle of Gold which the Mandarins put on their Bonnet of Ceremony Next to this the decking consists in having finer Pagnes then ordinary more excellent Pendants and more curious Rings on their Fingers and in greater quantity Some there are who report that the pretended father-in-Law before the conclusion of the Marriage of his Daughter with his Son-in-Law keeps him six Months in his house to know him better Some absolutely deny that this is true And all that in my opinion may have given occasion to the report is that it belongs to the Bridegroom to build the Wedding Room and House which he is to have at his Father-in-Law's during which that is to say for two or three days at most his future Spouse brings him Food without dreading the Consequences thereof because the Marriage is already concluded altho' the Feast be deferred The Riches of the Marriages at Siam The greatest Portion at Siam is an hundred Catis which do make 15000 Livres and because it is common that the Bridegroom's Estate equals the Portion of the Bride it follows that at Siam the greatest Fortune of two new married Persons exceeds not 10000 Crowns Of Plurality of Wives The Siameses may have several Wives tho' they think it would be best to have but one and it is only the Rich that affect to have more and that more out of Pomp and Grandeur than out of Debauchery A considerable distinction between them When they have several Wives there is always one that is the chief they call her the great Wife The others which they call the lesser Wives are indeed legitimate I mean permitted by the Laws but they are subject to the Principal They are only purchas'd Wives and consequently Slaves so that the Children of the little Wives do call their Father Po Tchaou that is to say Father Lord whereas the Children of the principal Wife do call him simply Po or Father The degrees of Alliance prohibited and how the Kings of Siam dispense with this Article Marriage in the first degrees of Kindred is prohibited them yet they may marry their Cousin-German And as to the degrees of Alliance a Man may marry two Sisters one after the other and not at the same time Nevertheless the Kings of Siam do dispense with these Rules and do think it hardly possible to find a Wife worthy of them but in persons that are nearly related to them The present King married his Sister and by this Marriage was born the Princess his only Daughter whom it is said he has married I could not find out the truth but this is the common Report And I think it probable in that her House is erected as unto a Queen and the Europeans who have call'd her the Princess-Queen have made the same judgment thereof with me The Relations inform us that in other places as well as at Siam there are some Examples of these Marriages of the Brother with the Sister and it is certain that they have been anciently frequent amongst a great many Pagan Nations at least in the Royal Families either to the end that the Daughter might succeed to the Crown with the Son or out of the fear I have mention'd that these Kings have had of misplacing their Alliances Thus Jupiter had married his Sister if they married not their own Sisters For as to what others add that it is to the end that the People may not doubt of having a Soveraign of the Royal Blood at least by his Mother I find no probability therein as to the East where the People are so little wedded to the Blood of their Kings and where the Kings do think to assure themselves of the Fidelity of their Wives by keeping them very closely The Laws of Succession for Widows and Children The Succession in particular Families is all for the
second Ambassador whom we saw here Yet it happens also that in this Country they hang themselves in despair when they see themselves reduced from an high Employment to an extreme Poverty and to the six Months Service due to the Prince tho' this Fall be not shameful I have said in another place Others are included in the Punishments with the Criminals that a Father shares sometimes in the punishment of the Son as being bound to answer for the Education which he has given him At China an Officer answers for the Faults of all the persons of his Family because they pretend that he who knows not how to govern his own Family is not capable of any public Function The Fear therefore which particular persons have of seeing their Families turned out of the Employments which do make the Splendor and Support thereof renders them all wise as if they were all Magistrates In like manner at Siam and at China an Officer is punished for the Offences of another Officer that is subject to his Orders by reason that he is to watch over him that depends on him and that having power to correct him he ought to answer for his conduct Thus about three years since we saw at Siam for three days Oc-Pra-Simo-ho-sot by Nation a Brame who is now in the King of Siam's Council of State exposed to the Cangue with the head of a Malefactor which they had put to Death hung about his Neck without being accused of having had any other hand in the crime of him whose head was hung to his Neck than too great Negligence in watching over a Man that was subject to him After this 't is no wonder in my opinion that the Bastinado should be so frequent at Siam Sometimes there may be seen several Officers at the Cangue disposed in a Circle and in the midst of them will be the head of a man which they have put to death and this head will hang by several strings from the Neck of every one of these Officers The least pretence for a Crime is punished The worst is that the least appearance of guilt renders an action criminal To be accused is almost sufficient to be culpable An action in it self innocent becomes bad so soon as any one thinks to make a Crime thereof And from thence proceed the so frequent disgraces of the principal Officers They know not how for instance to reckon up all the Barcalons that the King of Siam has had since he reigned The Policy of the Kings of Siam cruel against all and against their own Brethren The Greatness of the Kings whose Authority is despotical is to exercise Power over all and over their own Brethren The Kings of Siam do maim them in several ways when they can they take away or debilitate their sight by fire they render them impotent by dislocation of Members or sottish by Drinks securing themselves and their Children against the Enterprizes of their Brethren only by rendring them incapable of reigning he that now reigns has not treated his better This Prince will not therefore envy our King the sweetness of being beloved by his Subjects and the Glory of being dreaded by his Enemies The Idea of a great King is not at Siam that he should render himself terrible to his Neighbours provided he be so to his Subjects The Government of Siam more burdensome to the Nobles than to the Populace Yet there is this Reflection to be made on this sort of Government that the Yoke thereof is less heavy if I may so say on the Populace than on the Nobles Ambition in this Country leads to Slavery Liberty and the other Enjoyments of Life are for the vulgar Conditions The more one is unknown to the Prince and the further from him the greater Ease he enjoys and for this reason the Employments of the Provinces are there considered as a Recompence of the Services done in the Palace How tempestuous the Ministry is at Siam The Ministry there is tempestuous not only thro the natural Inconstancy which may appear in the Prince's Mind but because that the ways are open for all persons to carry complaints to the Prince against his Ministers And though the Ministers and all the other Officers do employ all their artifices to render these ways of complaints ineffectual whereby one may attack them all yet all complaints are dangerous and sometimes it is the slightest which hurts and which subverts the best established favour These examples which very frequently happen do edifie the People and if the present King had not too far extended his exactions without any real necessity his Government would as much please the Populace as it is terrible to the Nobles The King of Siam's regards for his people Nevertheless he has had that regard for his People as not to augment his Duties on cultivated Lands and to lay no imposition on Corn and Fish to the end that what is necessary to Life might not be dear A moderation so much the more admirable as it seems that they ought not to expect any from a Prince educated in this Maxim that his Glory consists in not setting limits to his power and always in augmenting his Treasure The Inconveniences of this Government It renders the Prince wavering on his Throne But these Kings which are so absolutely the Masters of the Fortune and Life of their Subjects are so much the more wavering in the Throne They find not in any person or at most in a small number of Domesticks that Fidelity or Love which we have for our Kings The People which possess nothing in property and which do reckon only upon what they have buried in the ground as they have no solid establishment in their Country so they have no obligation thereto Being resolved to bear the same Yoke under any Prince whatever and having the assurance of not being able to bear a heavier they concern not themselves in the Fortune of their Prince and experience evinces that upon the least trouble they let the Crown go to whom Force or Policy will give it A Siamese a Chinese an Indian will easily die to exert a particular Hatred or to avoid a miserable Life or a too cruel Death but to die for their Prince and their Country is not a Vertue in their practice Amongst them are not found the powerful motives by which our People animate themselves to a vigorous Defence They have no Inheritance to lose and Liberty is oftentimes more burdensom to them than Servitude The Siameses which the King of Pegu has taken in war will live peaceable in Pegu at Twenty miles distant from the Frontiers of Siam and they will there cultivate the Lands which the King of Pegu has given them no remembrance of their Country making them to hate their new Servitude And it is the same of the Peguins which are in the Kingdom of Siam The Eastern Kings are looked upon as the
they gild them but the Wood of their Coffins is not so precious as at China because they are not so rich as the Chineses Out of a respect they place the Coffin on some high thing and generally on a Bedsted which hath feet and so long as the body is kept at the house whether to expect the Head of the Family if he is absent or to prepare the Funeral Solemnities they burn Perfumes and Tapers by the Coffin and every night the Talapoins come to sing in the Balie Language in the Chamber where it is exposed they do range themselves along the Walls They entertain them and give them some Money and what they sing are some moral Subjects upon Death with the Road to Heaven which they pretend to show to the Soul of the deceased Mean while the Family chuses a place in the Field How they burn the bodies there to carry and burn the body This place is generally a Spot near the Temple which the Deceased or some of his Ancestors had built or near some other Temple if there is none peculiar to the Family of the deceased This space is inclosed with a square inclosure made of Bambou with some kind of Architecture almost of the same work as the Arbours and Bowers of our Gardens and adorned with those Papers Painted or Gilded which they cut to represent the Houses Moveables and Domestic and Savage Animals In the middle of this Inclosure the Pile composed entirely or partly of Odoriferous wood as are the white or yellow Saunders and Lignum Aloes and this according to the Wealth and Dignity of the deceased But the greatest honor of the Funeral consists in erecting the Pile not in eagerly heaping up Wood but in great Scaffolds on which they do put Earth and then Wood. At the Burial of the late Queen who died seven or eight years ago the Scaffold was higher than ever was yet seen in this Country and a Machine was desired of the Europeans to raise the Coffin decently to that heighth When it is resolved to carry the Corps to the Pile which is always done in the Morning the Parents and Friends do carry it with the sound of a great many Instruments The Body marches first then the Family of the deceased The Train Men and Women all cloathed in White their Head covered with a White Vail and lamenting exceedingly and in fine the rest of the Friends and Relations If the Train can go all the way by water it is so done In very magnificent Funerals they carry great Machines of Bambou covered with painted and gilded Paper which represents not only Palaces Moveables Elephants and other common Animals but some hideous Monsters some of which resemble the humane Figure and which the Christians take for the Figures of Devils They burn not the Coffin but they take out the body which they leave on the Pile and the Talapoins of the Convent near which the body is burnt do sing for a quarter of an hour and then retire to appear no more Then begin the shows of the Cone and of the Rabam which are at the same time and all the day long but on different Theaters The Talapoins think not that they can be present thereat without Sin and these Shows are not exhibited at Funerals upon any religious Account but only to render them more magnificent To the Ceremony they add a festival Air and yet the Relations of the deceased forbear not to make great Lamentations and to shed many Tears but they hire no Mourners as some have assured me About Noon the Tapacaou or Servant of the Talapoins sets fire to the Pile The Servant of the Talapoins lights the Funeral Pile which generally burns for two hours The Fire never consumes the body it only roasts it and oftentimes very ill but it is always reputed for the Honor of the deceased that he has been wholly consumed in an eminent place and that there remains only his Ashes If it is the Body of a Prince of the Blood or of a Lord whom the King has loved the King himself sets fire to the Pile without stirring out of his Palace He le ts go a lighted Torch along a Rope which is extended from one of the Windows of the Palace to the Pile As to the cut Papers which are naturally designed for the Flames the Talapoins do frequently secure them and seize them to lend them to other Funerals and the Family of the deceased permits them to do it In which it appears that they have forgot the reason why the neighbouring Nations dispence not from burning such Papers effectually and in general it may be asserted that there are no Persons in the world which do ignore their own Religion so much as the Talapoins It is very difficult say some to find any one amongst them that knows any thing It is necessary to seek their Opinions in the Balie Books which they keep and which they study very little Alms at Funerals The Family of the deceased entertains the Train and for three days it bestows Alms viz. On the day that the body is burnt to the Talapoins which have sung over the body the next day to their whole Convent and the third day to their Temple Funerals redoubled This is what is practised at the Funerals of the Siameses to which it is requisite only to add that they imbellish the Show with a great many Fire-works and that if the Funerals are for a man of great consequence they last with the same Shows for three days Bodies dug up to receive greater Funeral Honors It sometimes also happens that a Person of great Quality causes the body of his Father to be digged up again though a long time dead to make him a pompous Funeral if when he died they made him not such a one as was worthy of the present Elevation of the Son This participates of the Customs of the Chineses who communicate as much as they can to their dead Relations the Honors to which they arrive Thus when a man not born a Kings Son arrives at the Crown of China he will with certain Ceremonies cause the Title of King to be given to his deceased Father What the fire consumes not is buried under Pyramids and how the Siameses do call these Pyramids After the body of a Siamese has been burnt as I have said the whole Show is ended they shut up the remains of his Body in the Coffin without any Order and this depositum is laid under one of those Pyramids wherewith they encompass their Temples Sometimes also they bury precious Stones and other Riches with the body because that it is to put them in a place which Religion renders inviolable Some there are who say that they cast the Ashes of their Kings into the River and I have read of the Peguins that they make a Paste of the Ashes of their Kings with Milk and that they bury it at the
the History of Illustrious Men even of those that were more Antient than the Deluge Moses cites certain places thereof wherein is remarked the Poetick Stile I conceive therefore that Men being wearied with singing always the same things and losing by little and little the sense of the old Songs How the Talapoins and their Brethren might have succeeded the Antient Poetry and Musick have ceased to sing them and have sought some commentaries on the Verses which they they sung no more for lack of understanding them That then the Magistrates left the care of these Commentaries to other Men and that they by little and little imposing on the belief of the People have inserted in their Lectures many things to their particular advantage which are the Source of the Superstitious Veneration which the Indians do still retain for the Talapoins and their Fellow-Brethren However it be their Habit their Convents and their Temples are inviolable though the Revolutions of this Country may have showed some examples of the contrary Vâ—iet whom I have often quoted relates that when the present King's Father seized on the Crown he thought it impossible securely to make an attempt upon the Person of one of the Princes of the Royal Family till he had cunningly made him first to quit the Talapoins Pagne which he wore After the same manner when this Usurper was dead his Son who now Reigns seeing his Uncle by the Father's side seize on the Throne turned Talapoin to secure his Life as I have reported at the biginning of this Relation CHAP. XXIV Of the Fabulous Stories which the Talapoins and their Brethren have framed on their Doctrine THE Talapoins are therefore obliged to supply the ancient Musick Fables common to all the Indians and to explain their Balie Books unto the People with an audible Voice These Books are filled with extravagant stories grafted on the Doctrine which I have explained and these Fables are almost the same throughout India as the ground of the Doctrine is every where the same or very near They every where believe the Metempsychosis and that it is only a way to punish the Souls for their faults and to carry them gradually unto Perfection They believe Spirits every where diffused good and bad capable of aiding and of hurting but which are no other than the Souls of the dead and they admit the Worship of these Spirits though they raise no Altars to them but only to the Manes of the men whom they conceive to be arrived at the highest degree of Vertue as far as they think Vertue possible They all have some Quadruped which they prefer before all others some favourite Bird and some Tree which they principally adore They all believe the same thing of the pretended Dragon which causes the Eclipses and of the pretended Mountain round which the whole Heaven turns to make the Days and the Nights They have almost the same five Precepts of Morality they reckon near the same number of Hells and Paradice They all expect other men who ought to merit Altars like those to whom they have already consecrated some to the end that every one may have the Field free to pretend to the supream Vertue They all suppose that the Planets the Mountains the Rivers and particularly the Ganges may think speak marry and have Children They all relate the ridiculous Metempsychoses of the men whom they adore in Pigs Apes and other Beasts Abraham Roger in his Book of the Religion of the Bramins relates that the Pagans of Paliacata on the Coast of Coromandel do believe that their Brama whom they adore was born almost as some Balie Books do say Sommona-Codom was born viz. of a Flower which was sprung from the Navel of an Infant which they say was a leaf a Tree in the form of an Infant biting its Toe and swimming on the Water which alone subsisted with God They take no notice that the Leaf-Infant subsisted too and according to Abraham Roger they in this Country believe in God but in a God which is not adored and without doubt he has with as little ground advanced that others have writ that the Siameses believe a God The Fables which the Siameses relate of their Sommona-Codom 'T is no fault of mine that they gave me not the life of Sommona-Codom translated from their Books but not being able to obtain it I will here relate what was told me thereof How marvellous soever they pretend his Birth has been they cease not to give him a Father and a Mother His Mother whose Name is found in some of their Balie Books was called as they say Maha Maria which seems to signifie the great Mary for Maha signifies great But it is found written Mania as often as Maria which proves almost that these are two words Man-ya because that the Siameses do confound the n with the r only at the end of the words or at the end of the Syllables which are followed with a Consonant However it be this ceases not to give attention to the Missionaries and has perhaps given occasion to the Siameses to believe that Jesus being the Son of Mary was Brother to Sommona-Codom and that having been crucified he was that wicked Brother whom they give to Sommona-Codom under the Name of Thevetat and whom they report to be punished in Hell with a Punishment which participates something of the Cross The Father of Sommona Codom was according to this same Balie Book a King of Teve Lanca that is to say a King of the famous Ceylon But the Balie Books being without Date and without the Author's Name have no more Authority than all the Traditions whose Origin is unkown This now is what they relate of Sommona-Codom 'T is said that he bestowed all his Estate in Alms and that his Charity not being yet satisfied he pluck'd out his Eyes and slew his Wife and Children to give them to the Talapoins of his Age to eat A strange contrariety of Idea's in this People who prohibit nothing so much as to kill and who relate the most execrable Parricides as the most meritorious works of Sommona-Codom Perhaps they think that under the Title of Property a Man has as much Power over the Lives of his Wife and Children as to them it seems he has over his own For it matters not if otherwise the Royal Authority prohibits particular Siameses from making use of this pretended Right of Life and Death over their Wives Children and Slaves whereas it alone exerts it equally over all its Subjects it may upon this Maxim of the despotic Government that the Life of the Subjects properly belong to the King The Siameses expect another Sommona Codom I mean another miraculous man like him whom they already name Pra Narotte and whom they suppose to have been foretold by Sommona-Codom And they before-hand report of him that he shall kill two Children which he shall have that he will give them to the Talapoins to
betide him and the fortune that a Son would have at whose Nativity there had appeared so many Wonders They all assur'd him that he had great reason to rejoyce seeing that if his Son did continue in the World he would be Emperor of the whole Earth or that if he turned Talapoin by abandoning the Pleasures of the Age he would arrive at the Nireupan It is necessary to know that this Emperor had seven sorts of things which were so peculiar to him that there was none besides him that had them The first was a Glass-bowl which he made use of to rid himself of his Enemies by throwing it against those whom he would kill which being let go went to cut off the Enemies head and then return'd of it self The second were Elephants and Horses of an extraordinary goodness and beauty which did fly with the same facility as they walked The third was a piece of Glass by the means of which he could have as much Gold and Silver as he pleased for to this end he needed only to throw it into the Air and of the heighth that it went there would grow a Pillar of Gold or Silver The fourth was a Lady come from the North of a marvellous Beauty who had a great glass Pot sustained by three Columns of the same then when she would boil any Rice she needed only to put never so little Rice therein and the Fire would kindle of it self and extinguished also of it self when the Rice was boiled the Rice multiplied so exceedingly in the boiling that it would feed five hundred men and more The fifth was a man who took care of the House and who had Eyes so penetrating that he did see Gold Silver and Precious Stones in the Bowels of the Earth The sixth was a great Mandarin of an extraordinary Strength and Valour The last was that he had a Thousand Children by one Queen which indeed did not all come out of her Womb. One alone came out thence and the rest were engendered of the Water Blood and whatever comes out at the Delivery Every one of these Children in particular being grown up was capable of subduing and vanquishing all the Enemies which their Father could have Now there was one of the Soothsayers who taking the Father aside told him that assuredly his Son would abandon the World would quit the Kingdom and would consecrate himself to Repentance by turning Talapoin to be able by his good works to arrive at the Nireupan His Relations to the Number of Ten Thousand understanding by the Answer of the Soothsayer that the Universal Demesne of this whole World or the Nireupan were ascertained to this young Prince resolv'd amongst themselves every one to give him when he should be a little advanced in years one of their Sons to make up his Train and so they did When therefore this Prince after the Repentance of some seven years which he performed in the Woods was become worthy of the Nireupan a great many of these young men whom we mentioned which were of his Retinue turn'd Talapoins with him but amongst this great Company there were six who though they were his Relations and in his Train would not yet follow him We will recite the Names thereof by reason that in the sequel we shall speak only of them The first is called Pattia the second Anourout the third Aanon the fourth Packou the fifth Quamila the sixth * The Siameses report that Thevetat was the Brother of Sommona-Codom by this History he only is his Relation Thevetat and it is of this last that we wrire the History One day the Fathers of these six young Princes being accidentally met together after having discoursed a long time about several indifferent things one of them observed to the rest that not any of their Sons had followed the Prince to turn Talapoin and they said amongst themselves is it because that not any of our Children will turn Talapoins that we shall upon this account cease to be his Relations Hereupon therefore the Father of Anourout one of these six young Princes who was the Successor of Taousoutout said to his Son that though he was of Royal Blood yet if Sommona-Codom would receive him into his Company as a Talapoin he would not hinder him though some Persons of his Quality would not follow this Example Prince Anourout being accustomed to his Pleasures and to have whatever he desired understood not what this word of refusal No did mean One day as these six young Princes diverted themselves at Bowls and played for Confects for a Collation Anourout having lost sent a Man to his Mother to intreat her to send him some Confects which she did having eaten them they played for a second Collation then a third and a fourth and his Mother sent him some Confects till all were gone But as Anourout still sent to have more his Mother then told the Servant No there are no more Which being related to the Son and the Son not understanding what these words No there are no more did signify having never heard them spoken thought that his Mother meant that she had yet others more excellent the name of which must be these words No there are no more He therefore sent back his Servant to his Mother desiring her to send him some of the Confects No there are no more his Mother perceiving hereby that her Son understood not these words No there are no more resolved to explain them to him She took a great empty Dish covered it with another and gave it to the Servant to carry to her Son But then the Genij of the City Koubilepat reflecting on all that had passed between Prince Anourout and his Mother and knowing that the Prince understood not these words No there are no more because that formerly in another Generation he had Charitably given to the Talapoins his Portion of Rice and had demanded and desired that in process of time when he should come to revive again in this World he might not understand what these words No there are no more did mean neither did he understand or know the place where the Rice did grow they said that it was necessary speedily to assemble themselves with the other Genij These Genij are not invulnerable and their care is to recompence and punish to consult what was proper to be done because that if Anourout found the Plate empty their head as a Punishment would be broke in seven pieces It was therefore resolved that they would fill it with Confects brought from Heaven which they did The Servant who carried the Plate having laid it at the place where these young Princes were diverting themselves Anourout who only expected this to pay his Debt to his Companions ran to the Plate and uncovered it and found it as before full of Confects but so excellent that the whole City was perfumed with their Odor The excellent taste which they found in these Confects diffused it self
true God either the Name of Soveraign Lord or that of King of Heaven and Earth or some other Name which signifies in the Language of the Country what is most worthy of Veneration as the word Pra in Siamese But at the same time it be necessary to instruct them to annex unto these Names the intire Idea of the Deity an Idea so much the more easie to receive as it only heightens and embellishes the mean Idea's of the false Gods Gott which now signifies God in German was anciently according to Vossius the Name of Mercury who seems to have been every where adored Certainly the words Theos and Deus have not always signified in Greece and Italy the God which we adore What then have the Christians done They have accepted these Names in the stead of the ineffable Name of God and they have explained them after their manner From the Knowledge of an eternal spiritual God and Creator it would be easie to descend to the Faith of Jesus Christ and these People would make no Opposition if first they saw themselves cured of some sensible Ignorance The Spirit of man is such that he almost implicitly receives the Opinions of him who has visibly convinc'd him of his first Errors Thoroughly convince a sick person that the Remedy which he uses is not good and he will immediately take yours But in my opinion it is one of the most important Articles of the conduct of the Missionaries How the Missionaries ought to accommodate themselves to the simple customs of the Orientals in what concerns not Religion to accommodate themselves entirely to the simplicity of the Manners of the Orientals in their Food Furniture Lodging and whatever the Rules of the Talapoins prescribe wherein they have nothing contrary to Christianity The example of Father de Nobilibus the Jesuit is famous Being in Mission to the Kingdom of Madura in the Indies he resolved to live like a Jogue that is to say like a Bramin of the Woods to go with his Feet naked and his Headbare and his Body almost naked in the scorching Sands of this Country and to nourish himself with that excess of frugality which appear'd intollerable and it is reported that by this means he converted near forty thousand persons Now as this exact imitation of the Indian severity is the true way to make some Conversions so the further one should remove therefrom the more one should attract the hatred and contempt of the Indians It is necessary to learn in these Countries to make a shift with whatever they do and not to sustain the necessities or rather the superfluities of these Countries if one would not cause Jealousie and Envy to some Nations the particular persons of which conceal their fortune because they can preserve it only by hiding The less the Missionaries appear settled the more the Mission is established and the better it promotes Religion As the East is not a Country of settlement for private persons it would be an injury to think to accomplish it the Natives of the Country do not themselves enjoy any solid fortune and they would not fail to pick quarrels with those that should appear richer than them to deprive them of their Riches Moreover the Orientals seem to have no prejudice for any Religion and it must be confessed that if the beauty of Christianity has not convinc'd them it is principally by reason of the bad opinion which the Avarice Treachery Invasions and Tyranny of the Portugueses and some Christians in the Indies have implanted and rivetted in them But it is time to conclude this Relation with the Life of Thevetat the Brother of Sommona-Codom and with all the other things that I have promised The End of the First Tome A NEW Historical Relation OF THE KINGDOM OF SIAM BY Monsieur DE LA LOVBERE Envoy Extraordinary from the FRENCH KING to the KING of SIAM in the years 1687 and 1688. Wherein a full and curious Account is given of the Chinese Way of Arithmetick and Mathematick Learning TOME II. Illustrated with SCULPTURES Done out of French by A. P. Gen. R. S.S. LONDON Printed by F. L. for Tho. Horne at the Royal Exchange Francis Saunders at the New Exchange and Tho. Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Pauls Church-yard MDCXCIII TO THE READER I Have almost no other hand in this Volume than the collecting the Pieces thereof Some are Translations which are not mine in some others I only have held the Pen whilst the substance thereof was dictated unto me If there are any which appear too foreign to a Relation of Siam they are not so to my Voyage the History of which would perhaps have pardon'd me if I had undertaken to do it and much less to the general Knowledge which I have endeavoured to give of all the East thereby to make known the Genius of the Siameses However I crave Pardon for two or three Pieces at most which will not perhaps displease in themselves and which I have given to satisfie the Curiosity of some Persons whom I honor A TABLE OF THE PIECES contained in this VOLUME THE Life of Thevetat translated from the Balie Pag. 145 An Explication of the Patimouc or Text of the Vinac Pag. 157 The Principal Maxims of the Talapoine of Siam translated from the Siamese Pag. 158 An Account of the Charges of Justice translated out of the Siamese Pag. 163 Concerning the Measures Weights and Moneys of Siam Pag. 164 A List of the Moveables Arms and Habits of the Siameses and of the parts of their Houses Pag. 165 The Names of the Days Months and Years of the Siameses Pag. 168 Of the Monsons and Tides of the Gulph of Siam Pag. 170 A Description of the Principal Fruits of Siam Pag. 171 Of the Siamese and Balie Tongues Pag. 173 A Smoaking Instrument made use of by the Moors which are at Siam Pag. 180 The Chess-Play of the Chineses Pag. 181 The Abacus or Counting-Table of the Chineses Pag. 182 Of the Cape of Good-Hope Pag. 183 Rules of the Siamese Astronomy for calculating the Motions of the Sun and Moon translated from the Siamese and since examined and explained by M. Cassini of the Royal Academy of Sciences Pag. 186 Reflections upon the Indian Rules Pag. 199 The Problem of the Magical Squares according to the Indians Pag. 227 The Care of the Manners amongst the Chineses and of the Antiquity of their History Pag. 247 Reflections on the Chinese Chronology by Monsieur Cassini Pag. 252 Concerning the Isle Taprobane by Monsieur Cassini Pag. 259 THE LIFE OF THEVETAT Translated from the Balie AFter the birth of Pouti Sat * This is one of the names of Sommona-Codom Sat in my Opinion signifies Lord in Baly as Tchaou in Siamese and so he is called Pouti Sat and Pouti Tchaou the word Pouti is Baly who by his good works in process of time arrived at the Nireupan his Father King Taousoutout consulted the Soothsayers to know what would