embrace it I have not heard what Mr. Gervaise reports that it is needful to have a permission in writing from Oc-ya Pra Sedet to be receiv'd a Talapoin I see not likewise how this could be practicable in the whole extent of the Kingdom and they have always assured me that it is free for every one to make himself a Talapoin and that if any one did oppose the reception of another into this Profession he would sin When any one therefore is to be admitted his Parents and his Friends accompany him to this Ceremony with Instruments and Dancers and they stop frequently by the way to see dancing During the Ceremony the Demandant and the Men that are of his Retinue do enter into the Temple where the Sancrat is but the Women the Instruments and the Dancers enter not therein I know not who shaves the Head the Eye-brows and the Beard of the Demandant or whether he shaves it not himself The Sancrat gives the Habit with his own hand and he cloaths himself therewith letting the secular Habit fall underneath when he has put on the other Mean while the Sancrat pronounces several Balie words and when the Ceremony is ended the new Talapoin goes to the Convent where he must remain and his Parents and Friends accompany him thither But from this time he must no more hear any Instrument nor behold any Dance Some days after the Parents do give an Entertainment to the Convent and they exhibit a great many Shows before the Temple which the Talapoins are prohibited to see Whether there are several degrees of Talapoins Mr. Gervaise distinguishes the Talapoins into Balouang Tchaou-cou and Pecou As for me I have always heard say that Balouang which the Siameses do write Pat-louang is only a Title of Respect The Siameses gave it to the Jesuits as we do give them the Title of Reverence In this Country I never heard speak of the word Picou but only of Tchaou-cou which I shall explain in the Sequel and which some have informed me to be the Siamese word which signifies Talapoin So that they say He is a Tchaou-cou and I would be Tchaou-cou to signifie he is a Talapoin and I would be a Talapoin Nevertheless as there may be some difference between the Sancrats and Talapoins which the persons whom I consulted knew not tho' otherwise expert it may well be that there is some likewise between the Talapoins themselves some of which might be Pat-louang and others Picou and that the general name of all might be Tchaou-cou I refer my self to Mr. Gervaise The Talapoinesses do call themselves Nang Tchii They are clad in white Of the Talapoinesses like the Tapacaou and are not esteemed altogether Religious A simple Superior sufficeth to give them the Habit as well as to the Nens And altho' they cannot have any carnal Commerce with Men yet are they not burnt upon this account as the Talapoins are which are surprized in a Fault with the Women They deliver them up to their Parents to bastinado them because that neither the Talapoins nor the Talapoinesses can strike any person CHAP. XIX Concerning the Doctrine of the Talapoins ALL the Indies are full of Talapoins Divers kinds of Talapoins in the Indies tho' they have not everywhere this Name and live not everywhere after the same manner Some marry and others strictly observe Celibacy Some eat Meat provided it is given them slain others never eat any Some do kill Animals others kill none at all and others do kill very rarely and for some Sacrifice Their Doctrine appears not more exactly the same in all places tho' the Foundation thereof be always the opinion of the Metempsychosis and their Worship is also various tho' it always refers to the dead It seems that they believe all Nature animated not only Men How they believe the whole animated Nature and what Idea they have of the Animation Beasts and Plants but the Heaven the Planets the Earth and the other Elements the Rivers the Mountains the Cities the Houses themselves And moreover as all Souls appear to them of the same Nature and indifferent to enter into all Bodies of what kind soever they be it seems that they have not the Idea of the Animation as we have They believe that the Soul is in the Body and that it rules the Body but it appears not that they believe like us that the Soul is physically united to the Body to make one with it So far are they from thinking that the natural Inclinations of Souls is to be in Bodies that they believe it is a Penance for them to extirpate their Sins by their Sufferings because that indeed there is no kind of Life which has not its Troubles The supreme Felicity of the Soul in their opinion is not to be obliged to animate any Body but to remain eternally in repose And the true Hell of the Soul is on the contrary according to them the perpetual necessity of animating Bodies and of passing from one to another by continual Transmigrations 'T is said that amongst the Talapoins there are some which boldly assert that they remember their past Transmigrations and these Testimonies do doubtless suffice to confirm the People in the Opinion of the Metempsychosis The Europeans have sometimes translated by the word Tutelar Genius the Souls which the Indians give to the Bodies which we esteem inanimate But these Genii are certainly in the Opinion of the Indians only real Souls which they suppose equally to animate all the Bodies wherein they are present but after a manner which corresponds not to the Physical Vnion of our Schools The Figure of the World according to their Doctrine is eternal What they think of the Eternity of the World but the World which we see is not for whatever we see therein lives in their Opinion and must die and at the same time there will spring up other Beings of the same kind another Heaven another Earth and other Stars and this is the ground of what they say that they have seen Nature decay and revive again several times No Opinion has been so generally receiv'd amongst Men Of the nature of the Soul according to them as that of the Immortality of the Soul but that the Soul is immaterial is a Truth the knowledg of which is not so much propagated Thus is it a very great difficulty to give unto a Siamese the Idea of a pure Spirit and this is the Testimony which the Missionaries give thereof that have been longest amongst them All the Pagans of the East do believe indeed that there remains something of Man after his death which subsists separately and independantly from its body but they give extent and figure to what ramains and in a word they attribute unto it all the same Members and all the same solid and liquid Substances whereof our Bodies are composed They suppose only that the Souls are of a matter subtile
History of Tonquin accuses Confucius himself therewith Father Couplet to whom we owe the Translation of several of this Philosophers Works pretends to justifie him and he at the same time recites several Arguments of the modern Chineses by which they endeavour to demonstrate that it is a thing wholly conformable to the Principles of Nature that by the secret but certain sympathies between Vertue and Felicity and between Vice and Infelicity Vertue must always be prosperous and Vice always unhappy but in truth their Arguments are so elevated and so forced and correspond so ill to the Language of their Ancestors that it is very apparent that they are only the effect of a great extravagancy of Imagination which was not in their Ancestors The Siameses do not less dread Spirits than the Chineses The Siameses have no other Judge of Humane Actions than Fatality though they imagine not perhaps the Conformity between the Kingdom of the dead and theirs and moreover they have not lost the Idea of the Divinity less than the Chineses and that they have yet preserved this ancient Maxim which promises Rewards to Vertue and which threatens Sin with Punishments they have found out no other way than to attribute this distributive Justice to a blind Fatality So that according to them 't is the Fatality which makes the Soul to pass from one state to a better or a worse and which retains them more or less proportionably to their good or bad works And it is by these degrees that men are wholly fallen from the Truth when they would guide themselves by that weak reason in which they so mightily glory The Indians believe the Talapoins and their Doctrine as Ancient as Mankind As to the Origin of the Talapoins and their Compeers which are spread throughout the East under several Names as Bramins Jogues and Bonzees it is so obscure in Antiquity that it is difficult in my opinion ever to discover it It appears that the Indians do believe this kind of men and their Doctrine as ancient as the World They name not their Founder and they think that it is of this Profession that all the men have been whose Statues are honoured in their Temples and all those others which they suppose to have been adored before those which they now adore The Chineses do name Che-Kia for the Author of this Doctrine The Chineses report that the Bonzees and their Doctrine came to them from the Indies in the eighth year of the Reign of Mim-ti which answers to the 65th of our Salvation and as they love to give the Origin of all things they say that it was a Siamese named Che Kia who was the Author thereof about One Thousand years before the Nativity of Jesus Christ though the Siameses themselves do pretend no such thing and who boasting Antiquity in all things like all the other Indians they imagine that the Doctrine of the Metempsychosis is as ancient as the Souls themselves The Japponneses do call the Che-Kia of the Chineses Chaka and the Tonquineses have corrupted this same word after another manner for according to Father de Rhodes they call it Thika That this Che-Kia is certainly the Siamese name of the Talapoins Now these words Che-Kia and Chaka do nearly enough approach these Siamese words Tchaou-ca and Tchaou-cou to make suspect that they are only a light corruption thereof Tchaou-ca and Tchaou-cou signifies Lord or literally Lord of me with this difference that the word ca which signifies me is us'd only by Slaves in speaking to their Masters or by those who would render such a respect to him to whom they speak whereas the word cou which likewise signifies me is not so respectful and is joyned to the word Tchaou to speak in the third Person to him that discourses of his Lord. In speaking therefore to a Talapoin they will say unto him Tchaou-ca and in speaking of him to another they will call him Tchaou-cou But what is remarkable is that the Talapoins have no other name in Siamese so that they say literally crai pen Tchaou-cou I would be Lord to signifie I would be Talapoin Their Sommona-Codom they call Pra-poute Tchaou which verbatim signifies the Great and Excellent Lord and it is in this sense that they speak it of their King but these words may also signifie the Great and Excellent Talapoin After the same manner amongst the Arabians the word Moula which signifies a Doctor of Law properly signifies Lord and the word Master is equivocal in our Language it is spoken of a Doctor and likewise of the King I find therefore some reason to believe that the Chineses having received the Doctrine of the Metempsychosis from some Siamese Talapoin they have taken the general Name of the Profession for the proper Name of the Author of the Doctrine and this is so much the more plausible as it is certain that the Chineses do also call their Bonzees by the Name of Che-Kia as the Siameses do call their Talapoins Tchaou-cou 'T is therefore impossible to assert from the Testimony of the Chineses that there was an Indian named Che-Kia Author of the Opinion of the Metempsychosis a Thousand years before Jesus Christ seeing that the Chineses who have received this Opinion since the Death of Christ and perhaps much later than they alledge are forced to confess that they have nothing related concerning this Che-Kia but upon the Faith of the Indians who speak not one word thereof not thinking that there ever was any first Author of their Opinions The Antient way of Instructing the People was by Poetry and by Musick Before the Bonzees came from the Indies to China the Chineses had not any Priests nor Religious and they have none as yet for their Antient Religion which is that of the State Amongst them as amongst the Greeks the most Antient way of instructing the People was by Poetry and Musick They had three hundred Odes whereof Confusius made great Esteem like to the Works of Solomon for they contained not only the knowledge of the Plants but all the Duties of a good Chinese Citizen and doubtless all their Philosophy and it may be that these Odes are still preserved The Magistrates took care to have them sung Publickly and Confusius complains for that in his time he saw this Practice almost extinguished and all the Antient Musick lost According to him the most sure mark of the loss of a State was the loss of the Musick and Plato like him thinks Musick essential to good Policy These two great Philosophers had learnt that Manners cannot be preserved without the continual instruction of the People and that the Laws that is to say the only Foundation of the Publick Authoriry and Repose cannot long continue where the Manners are corrupted for where the Manners are corrupted they only Study to Violate or Elude the Laws The Learned remark in the Pentateuch the Tracts of such a like Poetry which contain'd
into this set of Buildings the more indeed he ascends and the greater distinction he perceives The great Officers will have three parts one higher than another which are divided by three Roofs of different elevation But at the Palace of the City of Siam I have seen seven Roofs proceeding one from under another before the Building I know not whether there were not others behind Some square Towers which are in the Palace do seem also to have several Roofs one three another five another seven as if they were square Goblets laid one upon another and in one of these Towers is a very great Drum headed with an Elephants Skin to beat the Tocsin or Alarum in case of need The same in the Temples or Pagodes As to the Pagodes in those that I have seen I observed only one single Pent-house before and another behind The highest Roof is that under which the Idol stands the other two which are lower are thought to be only for the People although the People forbear not to enter every where on the days when the Temple is open Pyramids But the Principal Ornament of the Pagodes is to be accompanied as generally they are with several Pyramids of Lime and Brick the Ornaments of which are very grosly performed The highest are as high as our ordinary Steeples and the lowest not exceeding two Fathom They are all round and do little diminish in bigness as they rise so that they terminate like a Dome It is true that when they are very low there proceeds from this Dome-like extremity a Tin Spire very small and sharp pointed and high enough in relation to the rest of the Pyramid Some there are which diminish and grow thick again four or five times in their heighth so that the Profile of them goes waving But these Bellyings out are smaller as they are in a higher part of the Pyramid They are adorn'd in three or four places of their Contour with several Furrows or Flutings at Right Angles as well as in that they have some hollow as in that they have some raised which diminishing gradually in proportion to the Diminution of the Pyramid do run terminating in a point at the beginning of the next bellying out from whence do again arise new Flutings A Description of certain Halls of the Palace I cannot tell what the King of Siam's Apartments are I have only seen the first piece thereof which is the Hall of Audience at Siam and Louvo 'T is said that no person enters further not the King 's Domesticks themselves excepting his Wives and Eunuch in which if it is true this Prince maintains a greater heighth than the King of China I likewise saw the Council-chamber in the Palace of Louvo but it was also a first Room of another Pile of Building I mean that it was not preceeded by any Anti-Chamber At the Front and two sides of this Hall lyes a Terrass which commands as well over the Garden which environs it as it is commanded by the Hall and it is on this Terrass and under a Canopy purposely erected on the North-side that the King's Ambassadors were at a private Audience which the King of Siam gave them and this Prince was in a Chair of State at one of the Hall Windows In the middle of the Garden and in the Courts there are some single open Rooms which are called Halls I mean those square places that I have already described which inclosed with a Wall no higher than one may lean over and cover'd with a Roof which bears only upon Pillars placed at equal distances in the Wall These Halls are for the chief Mandarins who do there sit cross-legg'd either for the Functions of their Offices or to make their Court or to expect the Prince's Orders viz. in the Morning very late and in the Evening until the approach of the Night and they stir not thence without Order The less considerable Mandarins sit in the open Air in the Courts or Gardens and when they know by certain signals that the King of Siam sees them altho he be invisible they do all prostrate themselves on their Hands and Knees When we din'd in the Palace of Siam The places of the Palace where we dined 't was in a very pleasant place under great Trees and at the side of a store-pond wherein it was said that amongst several sorts of Fish there are some which resemble a Man and Woman but I saw none of any sort In the Palace of Louvo we dined in the Garden in a single Hall the Walls of which supported the Roof They are plaistered with a Ciment extremely white smooth and shining upon occasion of which it was told us there was much better made at Suratt The Hall has a Door at each end and is encompast with a Ditch between two or three Fathoms in breadth and perhaps one in depth in which there are twenty little Jet-deaus at equal distances They play like a watering pot pierced with several very little holes and they spurt no higher than the edge of the Ditch or thereabouts because that instead of raising the Water they have dug away the Earth to make the Basons low The Garden is not very spacious The Garden of Louvo the Compartments and Borders thereof are very little and formed by Bricks laid edgeways The Paths between the Borders cannot contain two a brest nor the Walks more But the whole being planted with Flowers and several sorts of Palmites and other Trees the Garden Hall and Fountains had I know not what Air of Simplicity and Coolness which caused Delight 'T is a remarkable thing that these Princes should never be inclined to use Magnificence in their Gardens altho from all Antiquity the Orientals have admired them The King of Siam exercising the Chace sometimes for several days Palaces of Bambou in the Woods there are in the Woods some Palaces of Bambou or if you please some fixed Tents which only need furnishing to receive him They are red on the outside like those of the great Mogul when he goes into the Country and like the Walls which serve as an Inclosure for the King of China's Palace I have given the Model thereof not only that the Simplicity of it may be seen but principally because some assur'd me that the King of Siam's Apartments in his Palaces of Siam and Louvo is according to the same Model 'T is only a little Dormitory where the King and his Wives have each a little Cell Nevertheless the truth of what few persons do see is always hard to know However some also assur'd me concerning this Prince what I have heard reported of Cromwel which is that for fear of being surprized by any Conspiracy this Prince hath several Apartments wherein he locks himself at night it being impossible to divine exactly in which he lyes Strabo reports of the Indian Kings in his time that this very reason obliged them to change their Bed