their new Stile tho' the first Month of the Year according to this new Style be the fifth or sixth of the old Style This in few words is the whole Skill of the Siameses in Astronomy What the Siameses do think of the System of the World Moreover they understand nothing of the true System of the World because they know nothing by Reason They believe therefore like all the East that the Eclipses are caused by some Dragon which devours the Sun and Moon perhaps by reason of the Astronomer's metaphorical way of speaking that the Eclipses are made in the Head and Tail of the Dragon And they make a great noise with Fire-shovels and Kettles to scare and drive away this pernicious Animal and to deliver those beauteous Planets They believe the Earth Four-square and of vast Extent on which the Arch of Heaven rests at its extremities as if it was one of our Glass-Bells with which we cover some of our Plants in our Gardens They assert that the Earth is divided into four habitable parts of the World so separated one from the other by Seas that they are as it were four different Worlds In the middle of these four Worlds they suppose an exceeding high Pyramidal Mountain with four equal sides called Caou pra Soumene Caou signifies a Mountain and to Mount and from the Surface of the Earth or the Sea to the top of this Mountain which as they say touches the Stars they compute 84000 Iods and every Iod contains about 8000 Fathoms They reckon as many Iods from the Surface of the Sea to the Foundations of the Mountain and they likewise reckon 84000 Iods extent of Sea from each of the four sides of this Mountain to every of the four Worlds which I have mentioned Now our World which they call Tchiampion lies as they report to the South of this Mountain and the Sun Moon and Stars do incessantly turn round it and it is that which according to them makes the Day and Night At the top of this Mountain is a Heaven which they call Intratiracha which is surmounted by the Heaven of Angels This Sample which is all I know thereof will suffice to demonstrate their Grossness and if it does not exactly accord to what others have writ before me concerning this matter we must not more admire the variety of the Siamese Opinions in a thing they understand not than the contrariety of our Systems in Astronomy which we pretend to understand The extream Superstition of the Indians is therefore a very natural Consequence of their profound Ignorance but for their Excuse some People The Indians are Superstitious proportionably to their extream Ignorance more illuminated than them have not been less Superstitious Have not the Greeks and after them the Romans believed in Judiciary Astrology Augurs Presages and all sorts of Arts invented under pretence of Divining and Predicting They thought that it was the goodness of the Gods to bestow on Men some Succors to penetrate Futurities and the words Divination and Divine are the same word in their Origine because that according to the ancient Pagans the Art of Divining was only an Art to consult the Deities The Siameses are also of opinion that there is an Art of Prophecying as there is one of restoring Health to the Sick And when the King of Siam's Soothsayers are mistaken he causes them to be bastinado'd not as Impostors but as negligent persons as he commands his Physicians to be cudgell'd when the Remedies they give him perform not the Effect which is thereby promised The Authority of Soothsayers over the Siameses This Prince no more than his Subjects undertakes no Affair nor Expedition till his Diviners which are all Brames or Peguins have fix'd him an hour prosperously to set upon it He stirs not out of his House or if he be gone he enters not again so long as his Diviners prohibit him Sunday seems to him more lucky than the other days because that in his Tongue he has preserv'd the name of the Sun's-day He believes the Increase of the Moon more lucky than the Decrease and besides this the Almanac which he causes Annually to be made by a Brame Astrologer denotes to him and his Subjects the lucky or unlucky days for most of the things they used to do A Folly which is perhaps too much tolerated amongst the Christians witness the Almanac of Milan to which so many persons do now give such a blind Belief And Presages The Siameses do take the Howlings of wild Beasts and the Cryes of Stags and Apes for an ill Omen as several persons amongst us are frightned with the Barking of the Dogs in the Night A Serpent which crosses the way the Thunderbolt which falls on a House any thing that falls as it were of itself and without any apparent Cause are Subjects of dread to the Siameses and the reasons of laying aside or setting upon an Affair how important and pressing soever it be One of the ways they make use of to foretel things to come and which is common to all the Orientals is to perform some superstitious Ceremonies then to go into the City and to take for an Oracle about what they desire to know the first words which they hear accidentally spoken in the Streets or in the Houses I could learn no more thereof by reason that the Christian Interpreters which I made use of look'd upon these things with Horror as Witchcraft and Compacts with the Daemon altho' it be very possible that they are only Fooleries full of Credulity and Ignorance The ancient Francs by a like Superstition consulted in their Wars the first words which they heard sung in the Church at their entring thereinto At this very day several persons have a Superstitious Belief in certain Herbs which they gather the Evening of St. John from whence is risen this Proverb To use or employ all the Herbs of St. John that is the utmost skill in an Affair And amongst the Italians there are some who after having wash'd their Feet in Wine on St. John's Eve do throw the Wine out at Window and so stand afterwards to hear those that pass along the Street taking for a certain Augury on what they desire to know the first word they hear spoken The Indians accused of Sorcery and why But that which has rais'd the Reputation of great Sorcerers amongst the Indians is principally the continual Conjurations which they use to drive away the evil Spirits with and attract the good They pretend to have some Talismans or Characters which they call Cata to accomplish whatever they please as to kill or to render invulnerable and to impose Silence on Persons and Dogs when they would commit a wicked Action and not be discovered If they prepare a Medicine they will fasten to the brim of the Vessel several Papers wherein they will write some mysterious words to hinder the Petpayatons from carrying away the vertue of the
reason that the heat of the day dissipates all their Spirits Our Flowers have most scent about the Evening and we have some but few that smell only at Night Whatever has not naturally a great deal of taste and smell Why there is no Muscadine Grapes in Persia nor at Suratt cannot keep them in Countries extreamly hot Thus though there be Grapes in Persia and at Suratt yet there can be no Muscadine Grapes what care soever is therein employed The best Plants which are transported thither from Europe do presently degenerate and yield the second year ordinary Grapes only But at Siam where the Climate is much hotter there are no good Grapes Nor Grapes at Siam The few Vines which are planted at Louvo in the King's Garden produce only some bad Grapes which are small and of a bitter taste Pure Water is their ordinary Drink they love only to drink it perfum'd Pure water the ordinary drink of the Siameses whereas to our Palate Water which has no smell is the best As the Siameses go not to draw it at the Springs which are doubtless too remote it is wholesom only when it has been setled more or fewer days according as the Inundation is higher or lower or wholly run out For when the Waters retire and they are filled with Mud and perhaps with the ill Juices which they take from the Earth or when the River is re-entred into its Channel sufficiently muddy they are more corrosive do cause Disenteries and Lasks and cannot be drunk without danger till they have let them stand in great Jars or Pitchers the space of three Weeks or a Month. At Louvo the Waters are much more unwholsome than at Siam The Waters of Louvo and of Tlee Poussone by reason that the whole River flows not thither but only an Arm which has been turned thither which runs always decreasing after the Rains and at last leaves its Channel dry The King of Siam drinks water from a great Cistern made in the Fields on which is kept a continual Watch. Besides that this Prince has a little house called Tlee Poussone or Rich Sea about a League from Louvo It is seated on the brink of certain Low-lands about two or three Leagues in extent which receive the Rain-waters and preserve them This little Sea is of an irregular figure its Shores are neither handsom nor even but its Waters are wholesome by reason they are deep and setled and I have also heard that the King of Siam drinks thereof For pleasure and conversation the Siameses do take Tea Tea I mean the Siameses of the City of Siam For the use of Tea is unknown in all the other places of the Kingdom But at Siam the Custom is throughly setled and 't is amongst them a necessary Civility to present Tea to all that visit them They call it Tcha as do the Chineses and have not two Terms the one for what we call Tea and the other for what we call Cha or Flower of Tea 'T is certain that it is not a Flower But to assert whether they are the budding Leaves and consequently the tenderest or the highest and consequently the less nourished or the point of the Leaves which have been boil'd at China or a kind of particular Tea is what I cannot determine by reason that various Accounts have been given me thereof The Siameses do reckon three sorts of Tea the Tchaboui or Boui Tea Three sorts of Tea which is reddish which some say fattens and is astringent 't is look'd upon at Siam as a Remedy for the Flux The Somloo Tea which on the contrary purges gently And the third sort of Tea which has no particular Name that I know and which neither loosens nor binds The Chineses and all the Orientals use Tea as a Remedy against the Head-ach Tea is a sudorifick But then they make it stronger and after having drunk five or six Cups they lye down in their bed cover themselves up and sweat It is not very difficult in such hot Climates for Sudorificks to operate and they are looked upon there almost as general Remedies The manner of preparing Tea They prepare the Tea in this manner They have Copper Pots tinn'd on the inside wherein they boil the Water and it boils in an instant by reason the Copper thereof is very thin This Copper comes from Japan if my Memory fails me not and 't is so easie to work that I question whether we have any so pliant in Europe These Pots are called Boulis and on the other hand they have Boulis of red Earth which is without taste tho without Varnish They first rince the Earthen Bouli with boiling water to heat it then they put in as much Tea as one can take up with the Finger and Thumb and afterwards fill it with boiling water and after having covered it they still pour boiling water on the outside they stop not the Spout as we do When the Tea is sufficiently infused that is to say when the Leaves are precipitated they pour the Liquor into China dishes which at first they fill only half to the end that if it appear too strong or too deep they may temper it by pouring in pure water which they still keep boiling in the Copper Bouly Nevertheless if they will still drink they do again fill the Earthen Bouly with this boiling water and so they may do several times without adding any more Tea until they see that the water receives no tincture They put no Sugar into the Dishes by reason they have none refin'd which is not candy and the candy melts too slowly They do therefore take a little in their mouth which they champ as they drink their Tea When they would have no more Tea they turn the Cup down on the Saucer because that 't is the greatest incivility among them to refuse any thing and that if they leave the Cup standing they fail not to serve them again with Tea which they are oblig'd to receive But they forbear to fill the Dish unless they would testifie to him unto whom they present it full that 't is as some say for once and that it is not expected that he ever come again to the House Excellent water necessary for Tea The most experienced do say that the Water cannot be too clear for Tea that Cistern-water is the best as being the most pure and that the finest Tea in the world becomes bad in water which is not excellent Whether it is necessary to drink the Tea hot In a word if the Chineses drink Tea so hot 't is not perhaps that they have found it either more wholesom or more pleasant after this manner for they drink all sorts of Liquor at the same degree of heat unless the Tartars have now taught them as it is said to drink Ice 'T is true that the infusion of Tea is perform'd quicker in hot water than cold but I have
Vice-Roy of Canton who being poysoned himself and feeling the approach of Death called her whom he loved the best of his Wives and desired her to follow him which she did by hanging herself so soon as he was dead But certainly neither the Chineses nor the Tonquineses nor the Siameses The Oeconomy of the Chineses and of their Neighbors in Burials nor the other Indians beyond the Ganges have ever as it is known received the Custom of permitting the Women to burn and moreover they have by a wise Oeconomy established that instead of real Furniture and Money it should suffice to burn with the dead bodies those very things delineated in paper cut and oftentimes painted or gilded under pretence in my opinion that in matter of Types those of the things in Paper were as good as those of the things themselves which the Paper represents Wherefore the People report that this Paper which is burnt is converted in the other Life to the things which it represents The richest Chineses cease not to burn at least some real Stuffs and they burn moreover so much Paper that this expence alone is considerable But all these Oriental People do not only believe that they may be helpful to the dead as I have already explained The power of the Dead over the Living the Source of the worship of the Dead they think also that the dead have the power of tormenting and succouring the living and from hence comes their Care and Magnificence in Funerals for it is only in this that they are magnificent Hence it comes also that they pray to the dead and especially the Manes of their Ancestors to the Great-Grand-Father or to the Great-Great-Grand-Father presuming that the rest are so dispersed by divers Transmigrations that they can hear them no more The Romans likewise prayed to their dead Ancestors tho they believed them not to be Gods Thus Germanicus in Tacitus at the beginning of a military expedition besought the Manes of his Father Drusus to render it happy because that Drusus himself had made war in that Country They fear only their dead Acquaintance But by a prevention which I see diffused likewise among the Christians that are afraid of Spirits the Orientals neither expect nor fear any thing from the dead of foreign Countries but from the dead of their City or of their Quarter or of their Profession or of their Family CHAP. XX. Of the Burials of the Chineses and Siameses The Reason of speaking of the Burials of the Chineses THE Burials of the Chineses are described in several Relations but I shall not forbear speaking a word thereof to render those of the Siameses more intelligible because that the Customs of a Country do always better illustrate themselves by the comparison of the Customs of the neighbouring Countries What are the Principal Circumstances thereof The first care of the Chineses in Burials is to have a Coffin of precious Wood in which they do sometimes make an expence above their Fortune and though they bury their bodies without burning them they forbear not at their Interment to burn Goods Houses Animals Money and whatever is necessary to the Conveniences of Life but all in Paper except some real Stuffs which are burnt at the Funerals of the rich Father Semedo reports that at the Burial of a Queen of China her goods were really burnt The second care of the Chineses in Burials is to chuse out a place proper for the Tomb. They chuse it according to the advice of the Soothsayers imagining that the repose of the deceased depends on this choice and that of the felicity and repose of the living depends on the repose of the dead If therefore they are not the Proprietors of the place declared by the Soothsayers they fail not to buy it and sometimes dearly And in the third place besides the Funeral Train which is great they give magnificent entertainments to the dead person not only when they bury him but annually on the same day and several times in the year The worship of the Dead In their House they have a Chamber designed for the Manes of their Ancestors where from time to time they go to render the same Devotions to their Figure as they render'd to their Body in interring it They do again burn Perfumes Stuffs and cut Papers and they do make them new repasts The Tonquineses according to Father de Rhodes do intermix these sorts of repasts with Paper-meats which they burn The same Author very largely relates the Prayers which the Tonquineses make to the dead how they demand of them a long and happy Life with what zeal they redouble their Worship and Prayers in their Misfortunes when the Soothsayers assure them that they ought to attribute the cause thereof to the Anger of their Parents The Chineses at present are entirely impious Several Relations of China assert that the learned men which in this Country are the most important Citizens do consider the Ceremonies of Funerals only as civil Duties to which they add no Prayers That at present they have not any sense of Religion and do not believe the existence of any God nor the Immortality of the Soul and that tho they render unto Confucius an exterior Worship in the Temples which are consecrated to him yet they demand not of him the Knowledge which the learned Men of Tonquin demand of him The Doctrine of the Ancient Chineses on the worship of the Dead and that it is very probable that they never prayed to the dead in Funerals But whether the Funerals which the learned Chineses do make for their Parents be without Prayers or not it is certain that the ancient Spirit of the Doctrine of the Chineses was to believe the Immortality of the Soul to expect good and evil from the dead and to address some Prayers unto them if not in Burials at least in the disgraces of Life to attract their protection Moreover what opinion soever they have had of the Power of the dead to succor the living it is very probable that they thought that the dead were in need at the moment of the Burial that is to say in the Entrance and Establishment of another Life and that it then belonged to the living to succor the dead and not to demand succor of them But it is time to relate what the Funerals of the Siameses are The Burials of the Siameses So soon as a man is dead his body is shut up in a wooden Coffin which is varnished and gilded on the outside and as the Varnish of Siam is not so good as that of China and hinders not the stench of the dead body from passing through the cracks of the Coffin they endeavour at least to consume the Intestines of the dead with Mercury which they pour into his Mouth and which they say comes out at the Fundament They sometimes make use also of Leaden Coffins and sometimes also
to the Principles of their Doctrine Sommona-Codom before his Death ordered that some Statues and Temples should be Consecrated to him and since his Death he is in that State of repose which they express by they word Nireupan This is not a place but a kind of Being for to speak truly they say Sommona-Codom is no where and he enjoys not any Felicity he is without power and out of a condition to do either Good or Evil unto Men expressions which the Portugueses have rendered by the word Annihilation Nevertheless on the other hand the Siameses do esteem Sommona-Codom happy they offer up Prayers unto him and demand of him whatever they want whether that their Doctrine agrees not with it self or that they extend their worship beyond their Doctrine but in what Sense soever they attribute Power to Sommona-Codom they agree that he has it only over the Siameses and that he concerns not himself with other People who adore other Men besides him That it is probable that Sommona-Codom never has been As therefore they report nothing but Fables of their Sommona-Codom that they respect him not as the Author of their Laws and their Doctrine but at most as him who has re-established them amongst Men and that in fine they have no reasonable Memory of him it may be doubted in my Opinion that there ever was such a man He seems to have been invented to be the Idea of a Man whom Vertue as they apprehend it has rendered happy in the times of their Fables that is to say beyond what their Histories contain certain And because that they have thought necessary to give at the same time an opposite Idea of a Man whom his wickedness has subjected to great Torments they have certainly invented that Thevetat whom they suppose to have been Brother to Sommona-Codom and his Enemy They make them both to be Talapoins and when they alledge that Sommona-Codom has been King they report it as they declare he has been an Ape and a Pig They suppose that in the several Transmigrations of his Soul he has been all things and allways excellent in every kind that is to say he has been the most commendable of all Pigs as the most commendable of all Kings I know not from whence Mr. Gervaise judges that the Chineses pretend that Sommona-Codom was of their Country I have seen nothing thereof in the Relations of China but only what I have spoken concerning Chekia or Chaka The Life of Thevetat was given me translated from the Baly but not to interrupt my discourse I will put it at the end of this Relation 'T is also a Texture of Fables and a curious specimen of the thoughts of these men touching the Vertues and Vices the Punishments and Rewards the Nature and the Transmigrations of Souls I must not omit what I borrow from Mr. Harbelot A conjecture upon the Etymology of Sommona-Codom and what Language the Baly may be I have thought it necessary to consult him about what I know of the Siamese to the end that he might observe what the words which I know thereof have in common with the Arabian Turkish and Persian and he informed that Suman which must be pronounced Souman signifies Heaven in Persian and that Codum or Codom signifies Ancient in the same Tongue so that Sommona-Codom seems to signifie the eternal or uncreated Heaven because that in Persian and in Hebrew the word which signifies Ancient implys likewise uncreated or eternal And as touching the Baly Tongue he informed me that the ancient Persian is called Pahalevi or Pahali and that between Pahali and Bahali the Persians make no Difference Add that the word Pout which in Persian signifies an Idol or false God and which doubtless signified Mercury when the Persians were Idolaters signifies Mercury amongst the Siameses as I have already remark'd Mercury who was the God of the Sciences seems to have been adored through the whole Earth by reason doubtless that Knowledge is one of the most essential Attributes of the true God Remarks which may hereafter excite the curiosity of the learned men that shall be designed to travel into the East But I know not whether to this hour it is not lawful to believe that this is a proof of what I have said It seems to prove that the worship of the Chineses is more antient at Siam than the Opinion of the Metempsychosis that the Ancestors of the Siameses must have adored the Heaven like the ancient Chineses and as perhaps the ancient Persians did and that having afterwards embraced the Doctrine of the Metempsychosis and forgot the true meaning of the name of Sommona-Codom they have made a man of the Spirit of Heaven and have attributed unto him all the fables that I have related 'T is a great Art to change the belief of the People to leave unto them their ancient words by cloathing them with new Idea's Thus it may be that the Ancestors of the Siameses have thought that the Spirit of Heaven ruled the whole Nature though the modern Siameses do not believe it of Sommona-Codom they believe on the contrary as I have said that such a care is opposite to the supream felicity They believe also that Sommona-Codom has sinned and that he has been punished at the time that he was worthy of the Nireupan because they believe the extream virtue impossible They believe that the worship of Sommona-Codom is only for them and that amongst the other Nations there are other men who have render'd themselves worthy of Altars and which those other Nations must adore All the Indians in general are therefore perswaded What is the Spirit of the Faith of the Indians or the Submission which they have to their Traditions that different people must have different Worships but by approving that other People have each their worship they comprehend not that some would exterminate theirs They think not like us that Faith is a Virtue they believe because they know not how to doubt but they perswade not themselves that there is a Faith and Worship which ought to be the Faith and the Worship of all Nations Their Priests preach not that a Soul shall be punished in the other world for not having believed the Traditions of his Country in this because they understand not that any of them denies the Fables of their Books They are ready to believe whatever is told rhem of a foreign Religion how incomprehensible soever it be but they cannot believe that their own is false and much less can they resolve to change their Laws their Manners and their Worship One had better to show them the contrarieties and gross Ignorance in their Books they do sometimes agree herein but for all this they reject not their Books as for some falsity we reject not every Historian nor every Physical Book They believe not that their Doctrine has been dictated by an eternal and infallible Truth of which they have not