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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57253 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PEEPS AT MANY LANDS
+
+SIAM
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF VOLUMES IN THE PEEPS AT MANY LANDS SERIES
+
+EACH CONTAINING 12 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR PRICE +1/6+ EACH
+NET POST FREE 1/10
+
+BURMA
+CANADA
+EGYPT
+ENGLAND
+FRANCE
+HOLLAND
+HOLY LAND
+ICELAND
+INDIA
+ITALY
+JAPAN
+MOROCCO
+SCOTLAND
+SIAM
+SOUTH AFRICA
+SOUTH SEAS
+SWITZERLAND
+
+
+THE WORLD
+
+Containing 37 full-page illustrations in colour
+
+PRICE +3/6+ NET
+POST FREE 3/10
+
+
+PUBLISHED BY
+ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
+SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.
+
+
+AGENTS
+
+AMERICA      THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+                64 & 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
+
+CANADA       THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LTD.
+                27 RICHMOND STREET WEST, TORONTO
+
+INDIA        MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD.
+                MACMILLAN BUILDING, BOMBAY
+                309 BOW BAZAAR STREET, CALCUTTA
+
+AUSTRALASIA OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, MELBOURNE
+
+
+[Illustration: A TYPICAL CANAL SCENE. _Chapter II._]
+
+
+
+
+PEEPS AT MANY LANDS
+
+SIAM
+
+BY
+ERNEST YOUNG, B.SC.
+
+HEAD MASTER OF THE LOWER SCHOOL OF JOHN LYON, HARROW
+FORMERLY OF THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, SIAM
+AUTHOR OF "THE KINGDOM OF THE YELLOW ROBE," ETC.
+
+WITH TWELVE FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
+IN COLOUR
+
+BY
+EDWIN A. NORBURY, R.C.A.
+
+LONDON
+ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
+1908
+
+
+TO
+
+MY CHILD FRIEND,
+
+SYBIL MARJORIE COOPER,
+
+I AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATE THIS, MY FIRST
+BOOK FOR CHILDREN
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                             PAGE
+    I. A PEEP INTO SIAMESE HISTORY     1
+
+   II. IN EASTERN VENICE               5
+
+  III. DOWN THE RIVER                 10
+
+   IV. THE CHILDREN                   15
+
+    V. SCHOOLS                        18
+
+   VI. AMUSEMENTS                     22
+
+  VII. THE STORY OF BUDDHA            27
+
+ VIII. THE MONKS                      34
+
+   IX. THE TEMPLES                    39
+
+    X. THE SHAVING OF THE TOP-KNOT    44
+
+   XI. HOUSES                         48
+
+  XII. FOOD AND DRESS                 55
+
+ XIII. FISHING                        56
+
+  XIV. RICE                           60
+
+   XV. A PLOUGHING CEREMONY           65
+
+  XVI. ELEPHANTS                      69
+
+ XVII. WHITE ELEPHANTS                75
+
+XVIII. TRIAL BY ORDEAL                79
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+BY EDWIN A. NORBURY, R.C.A.
+
+
+A TYPICAL CANAL SCENE                 _frontispiece_
+
+                                         FACING PAGE
+A CORNER OF THE GRAND PALACE ENCLOSURE, BANGKOK    4
+
+THE RIVER MARKET, BANGKOK                          9
+
+THE GULF OF SIAM--MOONLIGHT                       16
+
+A BUFFALO CART                                    25
+
+A GROUP OF BUDDHIST MONKS                         32
+
+THE TEMPLE OF WAT POH                             41
+
+MOUNT PRABHAT                                     48
+
+A FISHING-BOAT NEAR THE ISLAND PAGODA, PAKNAM     57
+
+THE ANNUAL RICE-PLOUGHING FESTIVAL                64
+
+AN ELEPHANT HUNT AT AYUTHIA                       73
+
+A RELIGIOUS WATER PROCESSION                      80
+
+
+_Sketch-Map of Siam on p. viii._
+
+
+[Illustration: SKETCH-MAP OF SIAM.]
+
+
+
+
+SIAM
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A PEEP INTO SIAMESE HISTORY
+
+
+You have doubtless already learned in your history of England that at
+one time this island home of ours was peopled by wild, uncivilized
+tribes, who were driven away into the hills of the north and the west by
+invaders who came to our shores from the lands on the other side of the
+North Sea. At different times, Jutes, Saxons, Danes, and Angles poured
+their warriors upon our coasts, killed the people, burnt their homes,
+and stole their cattle. And one of these invading tribes, the Angles,
+gave its name to a part of our island, which is to this day known as
+England--that is, Angle-land, the land of the Angles.
+
+Now, in the same way, the people who live in Siam at the present time
+are the descendants of invaders who swept into the country and drove the
+original inhabitants into the hills. No one is quite certain where the
+Siamese actually came from, but it is likely that their home was upon
+the mountain-slopes of Tibet. Their ancestors were a wild and vigorous
+race who tattooed themselves. They descended from the mountains and
+settled in China, where they became a peaceable people, living upon
+their farms, rearing their crops and tending their herds, and perhaps
+thinking little of war and bloodshed any more. These people are known as
+the _Shans_. Then, one day, there came down upon them a great horde of
+invaders, who drove most of them away from their homes. Some stayed
+behind as slaves; other wanderers travelled to the west and settled in
+the country we now call Burma; and, finally, some of the exiles pushed
+on to the valleys and hill-sides of Northern Siam, and these are the
+people whose descendants we call the Siamese. The word "Siam" is really
+the word "Shan," the name of the earliest settlers in the land. Amongst
+the first of the European nations to visit this little-known country
+were the Portuguese; and when they came home to Europe again, and told
+their story of the people they had found in Further India, they both
+spelled and pronounced the word "Shan" as "Siam," and that is how we get
+the name. The Siamese never call themselves by this name. The native
+name for the people is "Thai," which means "free," and the country of
+Siam is to them always "Muang Thai"--that is, "the Land of the Free."
+
+We shall not stay here to tell the long story of how the Siamese, in the
+course of many hundreds of years, have fought all the people upon their
+borders--those who live in Cambodia, Pegu, Annam, and Burma. This
+history is full of curious stories of brave and cruel men, two of whom
+deserve just a word or two here.
+
+About the time when Charles II. was reigning in England, a Greek named
+Constantine Phaulkon arrived in Siam. He had been wrecked, together with
+a number of Siamese officials, upon the coast of India, and they had
+invited him to visit their country. He accepted the invitation, and they
+introduced him to the King. Phaulkon was a very clever man, and he
+became the chief friend and adviser of the Sovereign. He built a fort
+and a palace, and round the town that was then the capital he erected a
+wall, which was strengthened at intervals by small towers. The ruins of
+the palace built by this Greek are still to be seen in the old city.
+Phaulkon grew so powerful that the Siamese princes and nobles got
+jealous, and when the King became sick, so that he could no longer hold
+the reins of power, the angry princes and their friends made up their
+minds to get rid of the King's foreign favourite. One dark night
+Phaulkon was summoned to attend a meeting of the chief men of the
+country. He hurried to the palace, little thinking what was in store for
+him. On his arrival he was seized and thrown into prison, and finally he
+was tortured to death.
+
+Now, about a hundred years later, at a time when George III. was on the
+throne of England, and when we were fighting the American colonists
+because they would not pay the taxes we tried to impose upon them,
+another foreigner rose to great power in Siam. This foreigner was a
+Chinaman, named Phya Tak. The Burmese had invaded Siam, and had done a
+great deal of damage. So Phya Tak got together an army, composed chiefly
+of robbers and outlaws, and with these fierce soldiers he drove all the
+Burmese away. When he had achieved this great victory, he came to
+Bangkok, and caused himself to be crowned King of the country; and ever
+since his day Bangkok has been the capital of Siam. Phya Tak did not
+reign very long, for after a time he became mad. He fled to a monastery
+and donned the robes of a priest. But this did not help him very much,
+for the man who had been his chief friend and general murdered the mad
+King and reigned in his stead. The usurper assumed the crown in 1782,
+and the Sovereign who now rules over the country is his great-grandson.
+The present King's full name and title is His Majesty Phrabat Somdetch
+Phra Paramindr Maha Chula Lon Kawn Phra Chula Chom Klao Chao Yu Hua. He
+became King when he was not quite seventeen years of age, and his health
+at that time was so delicate that at first it was feared he would not
+live. However, on the day that he was crowned it rained very heavily,
+and then all his subjects felt very happy indeed; for if it rains when
+the King is crowned, then will he certainly live for many years. And so
+it has happened, for he is still alive, having reigned now about
+twenty-nine years.
+
+[Illustration: A CORNER OF THE GRAND PALACE ENCLOSURE, BANGKOK.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+IN EASTERN VENICE
+
+
+Bangkok, the present capital of Siam, has been called "the Venice of the
+East," on account of its innumerable waterways. The whole place is
+threaded with canals of every possible size and description. There are
+canals that are like great broad thoroughfares, where huge boats may be
+seen carrying to and fro rice, fruit, and other products of the fields
+and orchards; and tiny little water-lanes, where the broad fronds of the
+graceful coco-nut palm sweep down over the sluggish stream, where green
+parrots scream at you from amongst green branches, and ugly dark
+crocodiles lie asleep in the thick and sticky mud.
+
+Along the sides of the "streets" there are long lines of floating houses
+in which the people live. Each house floats on a big raft, made of
+separate bundles of bamboo. Thus, when the floating foundation begins to
+rot, the bundles can be replaced one by one without disturbing the
+people on the raft. The raft is loosely moored to big wooden stakes,
+which are driven deep in the bed of the river, so that the houses rise
+and fall with the tide. In front of the house there is always a little
+platform or veranda, on which the people pass most of their time, and
+where, if they pretend to keep a shop, they display the goods which they
+wish to sell. It is on this platform that all the members of the family
+take their bath. They dip a bucket or can into the water, draw it up,
+and then pour the contents over their heads.
+
+When the occupant of one of these floating dwellings wishes to move, he
+sends for no furniture van or cart; but he simply shifts his house, his
+furniture, and his family all at the same time. If he be fairly
+well-to-do, he hires a steam-launch, and the little vessel goes puffing
+and screaming up or down the river or the canal, as the case may be,
+dragging behind it the miniature Noah's ark, while on the platform the
+little ones of the household are to be seen, bubbling over with
+merriment at the novelty of their experience. If the owner of the house
+be too poor to hire a steam-launch, he calls to his aid a number of
+muscular friends and relatives, and then, with the aid of great
+shovel-shaped paddles, they coax the home away to its new locality.
+
+Some of the people who live on the water do not inhabit floating houses,
+but boats, and in these they can travel about from time to time as fancy
+or business may direct. Many people spend the whole of their lives on
+boats. They are born on a boat, reared on a boat, get their education
+neglected on a boat, go a-courting on a boat, get married on a boat, and
+never forsake the water till life is over and they set out on that long
+mysterious journey, from which no boat or carriage will ever bring them
+back. There is not much room in a boat, but the inhabitants thereof seem
+perfectly contented with their lot; in fact, the Siamese seem to be
+always and everywhere perfectly happy and contented: they are one of
+the merriest and most cheerful people upon the face of the earth.
+
+The water population is quite complete in itself, and does not depend
+upon those who dwell upon the land for any assistance whatever. There
+are not only floating houses, but floating restaurants, floating
+theatres, and even floating jails. The water population has its own
+market-place upon the broad bosom of the great river that sweeps through
+the centre of the capital. In the market the buyers and sellers are
+chiefly women, for the women are much cleverer and much more energetic
+than men. The market begins soon after midnight, and lasts till seven or
+eight in the morning. During the dark hours of the night the boats are
+massed together in such a way that scarcely an inch of water can be
+seen. They are laden with fish, eggs, rice, and fruit. Each boat has a
+little lamp at the prow, and in the soft yellow light that twinkles
+above the polished surface of the stream, you can catch glimpses of the
+black-haired, dark-skinned women busy with the vending of their
+merchandise, and all the time laughing and chattering with the glee of a
+carefree people. They are just like a party of merry children out on a
+big picnic. As soon as the sun rises, off home they go, leaving a broad
+and empty expanse of river where formerly there was a dense crowd of
+little boats and busy women.
+
+[Illustration: THE RIVER MARKET, BANGKOK. _Page 7._]
+
+It very seldom happens that anyone falls overboard; and even if a person
+does fall into the water it matters but little, for there is no Siamese
+who cannot swim. When the children are ever so tiny, their mothers
+fasten under their arms a big tin float. Then they throw the babies--for
+they are nothing more--into the warm waters of the canal or river, where
+they bob up and down like so many animated bits of brown cork upon the
+surface of the stream.
+
+There are, of course, many people who, in the capital especially, live
+upon land, and of their houses we shall say something in a later
+chapter. The land part of the capital, except for the palace and the
+temples, is not very interesting. The new brick houses and streets are
+very ugly, and the old wooden houses and streets are very smelly.
+
+Some years ago there was an old horse-tram that used to run from the
+palace to the place where the steamers are moored. But one day some
+European engineers changed all that: they put up electric wires, and ran
+electric trams. The natives were more than a little astonished. They
+could see a car running along the road, and yet there was neither horse
+nor man pushing or pulling. It completely passed their understanding to
+make out how the tramcar managed to get along. At last they came to the
+conclusion that it must be propelled by spirits. So they knelt down on
+the ground, and prayed to the spirit in the wheels of the car as they
+went swiftly and smoothly round. But not many of them ventured to get
+inside. One evening the King and Queen came out of the palace, and went
+for a ride in the new tram. And what the King had honoured was good
+enough for his subjects. To-day the cars carry thousands of people in
+many directions, for tram-lines have been laid through all the
+principal streets of the capital.
+
+There are no native vehicles in the streets. Outside the capital there
+are no roads, and the people travel everywhere by water. When roads were
+first made in Bangkok, and carriages were wanted, the Siamese got their
+vehicles from other countries. From Japan they got the _rickshaw_, a
+kind of big mailcart, with a Chinaman between the shafts. The human pony
+trots along very swiftly, and will carry you quite a long way for a
+halfpenny.
+
+From India they got the _gharry_, a kind of four-wheeler, which is
+fitted all the way round with sliding windows, something like those in
+the door of a railway carriage, except that the frames of the windows
+are oftener filled with Venetian shutters than with glass. The driver of
+the _gharry_ is either a Malay or a Siamese. He wears a red fez cap and
+a white linen jacket. When it rains he takes off his clothes and puts
+them under the seat to keep them dry. As soon as the rain leaves off and
+the sun comes out again, he stops the carriage, and dresses himself once
+more. The harness is made of rope, and, as often as not, it breaks. Then
+you have to wait while your coachman goes to the nearest shop or house
+in order to beg a bit of string wherewith to repair the damage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+DOWN THE RIVER
+
+
+Siam has only one great river that is entirely her own. It is marked on
+English maps as the "Menam," but its real name is the "Menam Chow Phya."
+The word "Menam" is made up of two words, _maa_ and _nam_, and means the
+"mother of the waters." It is the name of every river and stream in the
+country, and corresponds to our word "river." The Menam is not merely
+the mother of the waters, but of the land also, for all the lower part
+of Siam is one extensive plain, which has been built up by the mud,
+gravel, and sand brought down from the mountains by the river.
+
+Suppose we get on board a steamer and sail from Bangkok down to the
+mouth of the Menam. The distance from Bangkok to the mouth of the river,
+measured as the crow flies, is only twelve miles, but so much does the
+river twist and turn that we shall be three hours before we reach the
+sea. But there is much to be seen in those three hours, and the time
+passes away merrily enough.
+
+[Illustration: THE GULF OF SIAM--MOONLIGHT. _Page 10._]
+
+Everywhere there are boats--boats of all sizes and shapes, and without
+number. Many of these belong to the Chinese, and bear upon the prow a
+very realistic representation of an eye; for, says John Chinaman, "If
+boat no got eye, how can him see?" Siamese boats are chiefly canoes, or
+long, narrow, heavy _rua-changs_. Both classes of boats are built of
+teak, a wood which is plentiful and cheap, and which is not attacked by
+the so-called "white ant." The canoes are paddled in the ordinary way,
+but they are very upsettable. Many of these will not even sit upright in
+the water unless someone gets inside. Yet great fat men, whose weight
+sinks the boat to the very edge of the water, and tiny children, whose
+weight looks little more than nothing, can be seen at all hours of the
+day darting here and there, like so many flies, on the surface of the
+water.
+
+The _rua-changs_ are larger, and are used for carrying people about from
+one part of the river to another. They serve the same purpose as our
+omnibuses. The boatman, who is naked except for a cloth round the loins,
+stands to his work like a Venetian gondolier. He has only one oar, which
+works in a groove cut in the side of a short pole that is fixed on the
+edge of the boat. With long graceful sweeps of the heavy oar the boatman
+both steers and propels his craft at the same time. The passengers are
+squatting under paper umbrellas, which keep off a little of the heat of
+the sun, and blinking behind the blue spectacles that guard their eyes
+from the powerful and painful reflection of the sun upon the shining
+waters.
+
+As the capital is left behind the houses get fewer and fewer along the
+banks, and the trees come right down to the edge of the river. On either
+side of us, as the mouth is neared, there are dreary salt marshes, which
+are often flooded by the sea when the tides are high. On the banks, the
+fern-like attap-palm, that lover of the mud, bends over in graceful
+curves to dip the ends of its long fronds in the dirty water. Just
+behind, on firmer ground, rise the stately coco-nut and areca-nut
+palms. An eastern saying states: "The coco-nut will not thrive far from
+the sound of the human voice." Whether the coco-nut loves the sound of
+the Siamese voice or not it is, perhaps, not possible to say, but
+certain it is that the Siamese loves the coco-nut palm, on account of
+the many useful things that he can get from it. The young coco-nut is
+quite a different thing from that seen in our shops about
+Christmas-time. In its early stages it resembles a huge, unripe green
+plum. Outside there is a smooth green skin, like that on the outside of
+the plum. Under the skin is a layer of thick white woody fibres, that
+corresponds to the unripe part of the plum; and inside all there is a
+kernel, corresponding to the kernel of the plum. At this stage there is
+very little flesh in the nut, but a large supply of cool, sweet milk,
+which makes a very delicious drink. If you want a coco-nut, you just
+climb up a tree and take one. The owner of the tree will not mind, and
+he would be neither surprised nor angry if you were even to go and ask
+him for the loan of a knife wherewith to cut down his own coco-nuts.
+When the fruit is ripe, the woody mass changes to a tangle of brown
+fibres, that are stripped off to make coco-nut matting and other
+articles, and the kernel ripens into the nut as we know it in the
+English market.
+
+By this time we are at the mouth of the river. Here the current of the
+river meets the sea. That current is bearing with it tons of fine sand
+and soil. But the sea seems to say to the river, "Thus far, and no
+farther." And so here all the muddy stuff in the river water is
+deposited. In this way a bar has been formed, which blocks the river
+mouth. At low tide there are only three feet of water over it, and even
+during the highest tides there is never more than fifteen feet of water
+on the bar. Hence very big steamers can never enter the Chow Phya, but
+have to load and unload their cargoes by means of smaller boats, called
+"lighters." About fifty years ago, when the Siamese were fighting the
+people of Cambodia, they filled four large junks with stones, and sank
+them in the river mouth to prevent the ships of their enemy from
+reaching the capital. The junks have long since decayed, but the stones
+have become welded together into such a heavy, solid mass that it would
+take several charges of dynamite to remove the obstruction.
+
+The first steamer ever seen on the Menam belonged to a Scotchman, who
+imported it from England because the King wanted to see one of the
+"fire-ships" that he had heard so much about. When it arrived, the
+Scotchman and the King quarrelled about the price, and the boat was sent
+away again. But the next year the King's brother built a "steamer"
+without the help of any European at all, just to show how clever he was,
+and how they could do quite well without the Scotchman's boat. The new
+vessel was forty-two feet long, and she had a funnel like a steamer; but
+this was all a sham, for there were no fires or boilers. Instead, there
+were paddle-wheels hidden inside the boat, and these were turned round
+by Siamese serfs, who worked them after the fashion of a treadmill.
+Everybody was hugely delighted, and the people were quite sure that the
+boat was far superior to that which any European could possibly have
+made.
+
+However, in 1855 the Siamese did really build a steamboat, though they
+obtained the engines from New York. When the vessel was launched they
+had a grand ceremony. The stern was decorated with the crown and the
+royal umbrellas, and the deck-house was set apart for His Majesty's use.
+The paddle-wheels were decorated with gold, and on the main mast flew
+the royal standard. The builder was appointed captain, and so pleased
+was the King with his new ship that he ordered three more vessels to be
+built, one of which carried guns and was used for hunting pirates.
+
+The chief attraction at the mouth of the river is a magnificent pagoda,
+known as "the Shrine in the Middle of the Waters." It stands on a little
+island, is built of whitewashed stone and bricks, and is surrounded by
+the buildings of the temple of which it forms a part. Here every year
+boat-races are held, which provide a great deal of amusement, for by the
+rules of the game you are allowed to upset your opponent if you can.
+Hence the main idea is first to ram your rival's boat, and then, while
+the crew are struggling in the water, to scuttle off as fast as you can
+go.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE CHILDREN
+
+
+Siamese children can only be described in the language that an English
+mother uses about her own small ones as they tumble over one another in
+the nursery or in the garden--they are just "little dears." They laugh
+merrily, avoid quarrelling, either in words or with blows, and are most
+unselfish. The boy who has a new bicycle or a new watch will lend it in
+turn to each of his playmates, quite content to see them enjoying what
+was given to him for his own personal amusement.
+
+At first sight the children, with their straight black hair and their
+brown faces, strike the white man as being rather funny-looking little
+creatures. But after a while, when one has seen more of them, it is
+recognised that they possess a distinct charm and beauty of their own.
+Their features are quite different from those of the European, because
+they belong to a different race of people. The Siamese are _Mongols_, as
+are also the people of Japan, China, Burma, and Tibet. Their complexion
+varies from a lightish yellow to dark brown. Their faces are rather
+broad and flat; their cheek-bones stand out prominently; their noses are
+small; their hair is long, lank, and jet-black; and their eyes are small
+and set obliquely. Most Siamese children have very merry eyes--eyes that
+have got a perpetual twinkle in them, and more than a suggestion of
+mischief and roguishness.
+
+About a month after a child is born the little hair that is upon the
+head is shaved off. A little later the new arrival receives a name. At
+first every baby, whether a boy or a girl, has the same name. This
+common name is "Dang," which means "red." "Yellow" would be a better
+name, for all the babies are rubbed from head to foot with a yellow
+paste, which produces a very bilious appearance. This yellow powder is
+supposed to keep away mosquitoes, and as the dogs and cats are often
+powdered as well as the babies, you may frequently see a yellow set of
+wee creatures--animals and babies--rolling about together in the most
+laughable fashion. Names are often changed, so that a boy who is "Leam"
+to-day may be called "Chua" to-morrow. Sometimes the name is changed
+because it is thought to be unlucky. If "Chua" is ill, the chances are
+that there are certain spirits who do not like his name, so the parents
+alter his name to "Mee," or something else, and then he gets well again.
+
+Smoking is commenced at a very early age, and every little boy has his
+own tobacco supply and packet of cigarette-papers. As he trots to school
+in the morning he puffs away vigorously, occasionally passing his
+cigarette to a friend that he also may take a few whiffs. If the
+cigarette is not finished when he arrives at school, he pinches off the
+hot end and puts the rest behind one of his ears, as we might put a
+pencil or a pen. As soon as school is over out come the matches and the
+cigarettes again, and the little chimney puffs off home to lunch.
+
+When the Siamese young folks get up in the morning, they do not go to
+the washstand to wash their hands and faces, for the simple reason that
+there are no washstands. They go outside the house to a large jar of
+water, and then throw the water over hands and faces with a coco-nut
+dipper. No towels are used, as the hot air soon dries up the water. The
+teeth are not brushed, for they have been stained black, and it would be
+a pity to wash the colour off. The hair is not combed, as it has all
+been shaved except for a little tuft on the top of the head, and that is
+tied in a knot, and not often combed.
+
+When breakfast is over the children go off to play, the baby being
+carried by the big sister, not in the arms, but sitting on the hip of
+the bearer, as on a pony. The girls play at keeping houses. They make
+dishes of clay and mud, and dry them in the sun; gather herbs, and
+flowers, and weeds, and pretend that these are cakes and sweetmeats. For
+dolls they use small clay images that have been whitewashed. The dolls
+are put in tiny cradles and covered over with scraps of cloth. The
+cradles are made of network fixed on to a small oblong frame, like a
+picture-frame. The boys go fishing for crabs in the mud, and when the
+baskets are full of crabs, they pelt one another with warm, soft mud,
+just as we pelt one another with snow in the winter-time. When they feel
+sufficiently tired and dirty, they take a plunge into the water, and
+come up again clean, smiling, and happy.
+
+There are many games played both by men and boys, and about some of
+these you will hear in a later chapter.
+
+The Siamese children are very obedient and respectful to their parents,
+teachers, and those who are older than themselves. They never dream of
+arguing with those set in authority over them. They respect rank as well
+as age, but they have at the same time a certain amount of independence
+of character which prevents them becoming servile.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+SCHOOLS
+
+
+Siamese children, when very young, are but little troubled by either
+clothes or schools. They spend their time riding on buffaloes, climbing
+trees, smoking cigarettes, paddling canoes, eating and sleeping. But at
+some time in life many boys go to school. There is no compulsion. If a
+boy does not want to go, he can stay away. Yet most boys, both in the
+remote country districts and in the busy, crowded capital, have learned
+something. Perhaps the delights of climbing trees and smoking cigarettes
+pall after a time, or perhaps the boy is ambitious, and wants to get on
+in the world. If so, he must at least learn to read, write, and "do
+sums." Whatever be the reason, it does happen that practically every
+Siamese boy goes to school. His attendance is not regular and not
+punctual, but in the course of a few years he manages to learn certain
+things that are of use to him.
+
+Siamese schools are situated in the cool, shady grounds of the temple.
+They are generally plain sheds or outhouses. The teachers are usually
+the priests, but here and there a lay head master may be found. In such
+a case the master, like the boys, is not overburdened with clothes. A
+piece of cloth is draped about his legs, but the upper part of his body
+is generally bare. If he possesses a white linen coat, such as Europeans
+wear in a hot country, he takes it off when he enters the building and
+hangs it up, so that it shall not get dirty while he is teaching. He
+generally smokes the whole time, and when he is not smoking he is
+chewing betel-nut.
+
+The children sit cross-legged on the ground, tailor-fashion. There are
+no chairs or desks, and if there were the children would sit
+cross-legged upon them just the same. All learn to read. Now the Siamese
+language is what is called a _tonic_ language--that is, the meaning of
+any word depends on the _tone_ with which it is pronounced. For
+instance, the word _ma_ can be pronounced in three ways, and has,
+therefore, three meanings--namely, "come," "horse," and "dog." If,
+therefore, you called out to a friend, "Come here!" in the wrong tones,
+you might insult him by saying, "Dog, here!" and so on. You might wish
+to say to a farmer, "Can I walk across your _field_?" If you were to
+pronounce the last word in the wrong tone, it might mean, "Can I walk
+across your _face_?" a request that might lead to trouble, especially if
+the farmer were a big man. Some of the syllables have as many as five
+tones, and the foreigner finds it exceedingly difficult to express his
+meaning correctly. As the correct meaning of a word depends on the
+particular accent with which it is uttered, all reading must be done
+aloud to be enjoyed. Each scholar in the school learns his own
+particular page or lesson independently of the others, and the many
+voices blend into one, rising and falling from time to time in a not
+unmusical hum, sometimes loud and full, when the master is vigilant and
+the scholars are energetic; often soft and feeble, when the master is
+dreaming on the floor or lounging in the sun, and his pupils are getting
+weary of their monotonous task.
+
+Slates and pencils are used for writing, though the best pupils use lead
+pencils. In a village school ink is never seen.
+
+Arithmetic up to short division is taught in some schools, but in many
+others no arithmetic at all is taught, for the simple reason that the
+teacher does not know any. As for bills of parcels and recurring
+decimals, and all the other horrible things that men do with figures,
+they are unknown and undreamt of.
+
+Sometimes a little grammar is learned if the master knows anything of
+the subject, and all who expect to be thought wise must learn pages of
+the sacred books off by heart, and must be able to repeat them without
+hesitation or error. They do not understand a word of what they are
+saying, for the sacred books are written in a dead language that nobody
+speaks and few understand.
+
+And that is all. There is no geography, history, or science. There are
+no workshops, laboratories, or drawing-classes.
+
+There is no furniture of any description, no diagrams, blackboards, or
+desks. I once went into a school, where I saw each child sitting
+placidly on the ground with a small box in front of him, on which he
+placed his slate or book. It was a curious sight. There were about forty
+of these boxes, all procured in the native market, and bearing on their
+sides varied announcements as to the excellence of Pear's soap and
+Cadbury's cocoa.
+
+The school opens at nine. The boys arrive between ten and eleven, and
+the head master puts in his appearance when he has finished his
+breakfast. The only part of the unwritten time-table that is punctually
+kept is the time for closing.
+
+In the capital there are now a number of schools that are quite well
+organized and taught, and even in some of the villages things are slowly
+improving.
+
+Where English masters are employed some attempt has been made to teach
+English games. To these the boys take very quickly. Cricket is the
+favourite game, and some of the boys soon become as clever as their
+teachers. I shall never forget the first cricket-match, played between a
+team of Siamese boys and a number of young Hindus who had picked up the
+game in India. Each side brought a crowd of spectators of its own
+nationality. Under one clump of trees the swarthy Hindu crowd were
+gathered, wearing clean turbans and long picturesque robes, with their
+eyes all aglow and their faces all afire with excitement. Near at hand
+the lighter-coloured, more sparsely clad Siamese congregated, less
+excitable, but more genial and pleasant to look upon. Everywhere
+gathered the dealers in cigarettes, the carriers of teapots, the
+vendors of ginger-beer and curry. The game baffles description, but I
+can never think of it without remembering the policeman in the road, who
+got hit on the bare foot with the ball, and refused to restore it until
+two-and-twenty cricketers, in various dialects and with yet more varied
+actions, managed to persuade the wounded officer that they had never
+meant to hurt him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+AMUSEMENTS
+
+
+The Siamese have practically no games which, like football and hockey,
+involve a great deal of physical exertion. They like to take their
+pleasures quietly, on account of the great heat. The chief amusement is
+gambling in some form or other. Little boys catch crickets, and bring
+them to school in match-boxes. In play-time they dig a little hole in
+the ground, put the crickets in the hole, and make them fight, meanwhile
+betting their knives, cigarettes, and other small possessions on the
+result of the combat.
+
+Sometimes there are cock-fights. As there are few or no watches with
+which to time the rounds, a time-measurer of another kind is used. This
+consists of a small bowl that floats in water. There is a little hole in
+the bottom of the bowl, through which water slowly enters. When the bowl
+is filled to a certain point it sinks, and then the round is over.
+
+Perhaps the most curious of the contests that are employed as means of
+gambling is that between two fighting fish. The fighting fish is a
+species of small carp about the size of a stickleback. It has beautiful
+peacock-blue sides and ruby-coloured fins. These fish are kept in glass
+bottles, and are trained to attack their own image as seen in a
+looking-glass. When two of them meet each other in a big bowl of water,
+the way in which they manoeuvre to get hold of one another is most
+ridiculous, and the way they bite whenever they get the chance is
+perfectly atrocious. All the time the fight is going on the spectators
+lay wagers on the result.
+
+In March, when the winds are strong, kite-flying is indulged in by
+grown-up people as well as children. There is always great excitement at
+a kite-flying contest. Two men stand close together. One man sends his
+kite up, and when it is well in the air the second man sends his aloft.
+The kites have no tails, but they fly steadily. When the two kites are
+near each other, one man gives his string a peculiar jerk. This makes
+his kite jump over the other one, descend a little way, and then come up
+on the other side. In this way the strings attached to the two kites get
+entangled. By alternately pulling in and releasing the strings they are
+made to saw one another. The man whose kite-string is first cut through
+loses the game. On many of the kites whistles are fastened, and as the
+kites sweep through the air shrill piercing sounds accompany their
+flight.
+
+Another popular amusement is "football," which is nothing like our game
+of the same name. The ball is only about six or seven inches in
+diameter. It is very light, as it is made of a few pieces of twisted
+cane. Any number of people can play, from two upwards. The players stand
+in a ring facing each other. One of them sends the ball into the air,
+and the person nearest to it, when it descends, must send it up again.
+He may do this with his head, shoulder, knee, or foot, but he must not
+touch the ball with his hands. If the ball falls just behind the
+player's back, he judges the distance without turning round, catches the
+ball on the back of his heel, and so brings it back into the circle and
+towards another player. There are no goals, and, in fact, no scoring of
+any kind. The game ends when the players are tired. Sometimes a weary
+one will drop out of the game, lie down for a while for a rest, and then
+rejoin the circle when he feels refreshed. New-comers may join the game
+at any moment. About the only amusement not associated with gambling is
+the theatre. There is only one fixed theatre in the capital. In the days
+when there was neither gas nor electric light it was only open on
+moonlit nights, for without the light of the moon the people would have
+had to go home in the dark. As a rule, theatrical performances take
+place at private houses at times of weddings, or funerals, or on other
+occasions of private rejoicing or sorrow.
+
+[Illustration: A BUFFALO CART.]
+
+There are no men players except the clowns. The other parts are taken by
+women. The plays, if acted from beginning to end, would last for weeks;
+but, as everybody knows the whole of every drama, only small portions
+are acted at a time. The better the people know the selection that is
+played, the better they like it. The actresses move about from one side
+of the stage to the other, twisting their heads, arms, and legs about in
+a slow and curious fashion, which is their way of dancing. They do not
+speak. The story is told by a chorus of people, who screech out the
+tale, to the accompaniment of the weirdest of bands. It sounds like a
+mixture of drums, brass trays, and bagpipes.
+
+As a fixed theatre is not necessary, the plays can be acted anywhere. A
+space for the stage is marked out on the ground with mats. Round the
+mats sit the band and the chorus. The spectators sit or stand quite near
+the players, and sometimes an odd baby gets loose, and wanders about
+amongst the feet of the angels and demons, who are strutting quaintly in
+the mat-encircled area. When the man who beats the drums or bangs the
+brass trays has had enough, some little boy in the audience will come
+and take his place, and so allow the weary musician a little rest.
+
+There is of course, no scenery, and the audience has to draw very
+largely on its imagination as the performance proceeds. Suppose that a
+Siamese company were going to play "Robinson Crusoe." This is the kind
+of thing that would happen. One actress would come on the stage with a
+pole fastened to her chest. From the top of a pole a little flag would
+fly. The rest of the troupe would stand, two by two, behind the maiden
+with the pole. Last of all would come another actress, bearing another
+pole and flag, and with a rudder tied to her back. The long string of
+people gathered together in this way would represent a ship and its
+passengers. The voyage would now begin by the company rolling round the
+edges of the mats in a very slow and measured manner. Presently the
+storm would arise. The drummers would bang, the brass-tray beaters would
+hammer, and the bagpipe-blowing gentlemen would nearly burst themselves.
+The chorus would howl, and all the little boys and girls in the audience
+would join in, and outdo the professional howlers easily, as you may
+imagine. Everyone would fall flat down on the stage, and that would be a
+shipwreck. In a second or two the drowned sailors would get up and walk
+off the stage, and no one would think it at all funny. Poor old
+Robinson, left to himself, would find the goat, and the goat would be
+one of the actresses, who would walk about on two legs, wearing a mask
+that would look just as much like a monkey as a goat, and with two horns
+on her head. The goat would circulate about the stage, dancing exactly
+like a human being, and the spectators would help the actress by
+believing that she really was a goat, and so everybody would be
+satisfied. When Robinson wanted to hide himself in a wood, he would walk
+to the edge of the stage, and hold a branch of a tree in front of his
+face. This would mean that he was quite hidden. If anyone pretended to
+see him, they would probably hear some very rude remarks from the rest
+of the audience, who would not wish to have their innocent amusement
+spoiled by a clever young critic.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE STORY OF BUDDHA
+
+
+The religion of the Siamese is Buddhism. It is so called after the
+Buddha who was its founder and first missionary. The Buddha lived so
+many, many years ago that we know very little about him. For centuries
+after his death wonderful stories were told about his power, his
+kindness, and his great wisdom. As the stories passed from mouth to
+mouth they became more and more marvellous, and at the present time
+there are scores of tales about him that are little better than
+fairy-stories. In the following account of this great and holy man the
+known facts of his life and some of the legends about himself and his
+doings are interwoven. It must be remembered that the Buddha was a man
+who did actually live upon the earth, and that, though the fables about
+him are unbelievable by us, yet these fables are useful as showing us
+what other people thought about their wise and saintly teacher.
+
+About five hundred years before the birth of Christ the Buddha was born
+at a small village in India, only a few days' journey from Benares, the
+sacred city of the Hindus. His father was the Rajah of the tribe of
+Sakyas. The boy's family name was Gautama, and under this name we shall
+oftenest speak of him in this chapter. But his followers never use the
+name Gautama, thinking it too familiar and intimate. They always speak
+of him under some title, such as "the Lion of the Tribe of Sakya," "the
+Happy One," "the Conqueror," "the Lord of the World," "the King of
+Righteousness," and so on. When he was only seven days old his mother
+died, and he was brought up by his aunt.
+
+The boy was quiet and thoughtful, and seemed to take no pleasure in
+hunting or in practising any of those exercises which would fit him to
+lead his tribe in war. His friends and relatives and the great Sakya
+nobles were very cross at this, because they feared that, when their
+enemies should attack them, the young prince would be found unequal to
+lead them in their conflicts. So they went to his father, and complained
+that the boy did nothing but follow his own pleasures, and that he
+learned nothing useful. When Gautama heard of this, he asked the King,
+his father, to fix a day on which he could show his skill and strength
+in all the manly arts. On the appointed day thousands of people thronged
+to the place that had been chosen to see what the Prince could do. He
+surprised every one, for he could ride the fiercest horses and fling the
+heaviest spears. He shot arrows with a bow that 1,000 men could not
+bend, and the sound of whose twanging was heard 7,000 miles away. After
+this the people held their peace and wondered.
+
+When he was nineteen he married his cousin, a girl singularly beautiful
+and good. For the next ten years after that we know nothing at all about
+him, but we are sure that he lived a quiet, peaceful life, treating all
+around him with gentleness and courtesy, and thinking little about
+sickness or sorrow. One day, when he was about twenty-nine years old,
+he was driving to the pleasure-grounds when he saw a man broken down by
+age--weak, poor, and miserable--and he asked the man who was driving his
+chariot to explain the sight. To which the charioteer replied that all
+men who live to a great age become weak in mind and body, just like the
+poor old wreck they had seen in the street. Another day he saw a man
+suffering from disease, and again the charioteer explained that all men
+have to suffer pain. A few days later he saw a dead body, and learned
+for the first time--a fact that had been kept from him through all the
+days of his childhood and his manhood even up to that hour--that all
+human beings must die.
+
+Gautama was very sad when he thought of the misery that there is in the
+world, and he began to wonder if it could not all be done away with. He
+made up his mind to go away secretly and become a hermit. He would live
+away from towns and crowds, and see if he could not discover a way to
+lessen the sorrows of his fellow-men.
+
+Just about this time his son was born. He loved this son very dearly,
+but he thought that if he were to find the path to happiness, he would
+have to free himself from all earthly ties and relations. One night he
+went into the room where his wife lay sleeping. There, in the dim yellow
+light of the lamp, he saw the mother and the child. The mother's hand
+rested caressingly on the head of the little baby; flowers were strewn
+upon the floor and around the bed. He wanted to take the tiny mite in
+his arms and kiss it ere he went away; but he was afraid of waking
+either of the slumberers, so he took one last, long, loving look at them
+both, and then fled into the night, accompanied only by Channa, his
+charioteer. Under the full light of the July moon he sped away, having
+given up his home, his wealth, and his dear ones to become an outcast
+and a wanderer.
+
+Then there appeared to him Mara, the evil one, who tempted him to give
+up his plans for a lonely life. Mara promised him, if he would return to
+wealth and worldly ease, to make him in seven days the sole ruler of the
+world. But Gautama was not to be persuaded, and the evil one was
+defeated.
+
+The prince and the charioteer rode on for many miles until they came to
+the banks of a certain river. There Gautama stopped. Taking his sword,
+he cut off his long flowing locks and gave them to Channa, telling him
+to take them, his horse, and his ornaments back to the town of his
+birth, in order that his friends and his relatives might know exactly
+what had happened to him. Channa was loath to leave his master, but was
+obliged to obey him.
+
+When Channa had departed, Gautama sought the caves where the hermits
+dwelt. There he stayed a while, fasting and doing penance, in the hope
+of finding out in this way the true road to happiness and righteousness.
+So long did he go without food, and so severely did he inflict torture
+on himself, that one day he fell down exhausted. Every one thought he
+was dead, but he recovered after a little while. It seemed to him, when
+he once more regained consciousness, that this life of self-denial and
+hardship did not lead to that which he was seeking. So he left off
+fasting, and took his food again like an ordinary man. This disgusted
+the few disciples who had been living with him in retirement, and they
+all fled away and left him to himself. When they had gone, he strolled
+down to the banks of the neighbouring river. As he went along, the
+daughter of one of the villagers offered him some food. He took it, and
+sat down under the shade of a large tree. This tree is known to all
+Buddhists as the Bo-tree, and is as sacred to them as the cross is to
+Christians. While sitting under the tree, Gautama thought seriously
+about the past and the future. He felt very disappointed with his
+failure and at the loss of his late friends. The evil one came to him
+again, and whispered to him of love and power, of wealth and honour, and
+urged him to seek his home, his wife, and his child. For forty-nine days
+and nights Gautama sat under the Bo-tree, his mind torn with the
+conflict as to what was his duty. At the end of that time his doubts
+vanished, his mind cleared, the storm was over, and he had become the
+"Buddha"--that is, the "Enlightened One." He knew now that it was his
+duty to go and preach to people the way to happiness and peace, to show
+them how to avoid misery, and how to conquer even death itself. It would
+take too long now to tell you what it was that the Buddha preached to
+those who would listen to him. Some time when you are older you must
+read this for yourself in another book.
+
+Gautama now returned to Benares, and addressed a great crowd of angels,
+men, and animals. Each man in the multitude, no matter what his language
+might be, understood the words of the speaker, and even the birds of the
+air and the beasts of the field knew that the wise man spoke to them,
+too. He remained in the neighbourhood of Benares for a long time,
+gathering round him a number of men and women, who were determined to do
+as he told them. When the rainy season was over, he dismissed them,
+sending them away in all directions to carry his gospel to whomsoever
+they should meet. He himself went to his native land, his father having
+sent to say that he was now old, and would like to see his son again
+before he died. His uncles were very angry with him, and when he arrived
+at the town where his father lived, they offered him no food. So in the
+early morning he took his begging-bowl and went out to beg his daily
+meal. When his father heard of this he was very cross, for he thought it
+a disgrace that the King's son should walk like a common beggar from
+house to house asking alms. The King met the Buddha and reproached him,
+but anger soon was lost in love, and the father, taking the son's bowl,
+led him to the palace.
+
+The people in the palace crowded to meet them. But Gautama's wife
+remained in her own room waiting for him to come to her, in a place
+where she could welcome him alone. Presently he asked for her, and,
+learning where she was, he went to see her, accompanied by a few
+disciples. As soon as his wife saw him, she fell weeping at his feet.
+Somehow she knew, almost without looking at him, that he was changed,
+that he was wiser and holier than any man she had ever met. After a
+time he spoke to her of his message to men, and she listened earnestly
+to his words. She accepted his teaching, and asked to be allowed to
+become a nun. The Buddha was not at first inclined to permit this, but
+at last he yielded to her entreaties, and his wife became one of the
+first of the Buddhist nuns.
+
+For forty-five years the Buddha worked as a missionary in the valley of
+the Ganges, till the time of his end came, and he passed away from
+earth. As he lay dying, he said to his cousin Ananda, who had been a
+loving and faithful disciple, "O Ananda, do not let yourself be
+troubled; do not weep. Have I not told you that we must part from all we
+hold most dear and pleasant? For a long time, Ananda, you have been very
+near to me by kindness in act, and word, and thoughtfulness. You have
+always done well." And again speaking to the same disciple, he
+exclaimed, "You may perhaps begin to think that the word is ended now
+that your teacher is gone; but you must not think so. After I am dead
+let the law and the rules of the Order which I have taught you be a
+teacher to you."
+
+He passed away leaving behind him many who sorrowed for his death. And
+after all these years temples are still built in his honour; monks still
+follow the rules that he laid down; and men and women lay flowers upon
+his altars, bend before his images, and carry his teachings in their
+hearts.
+
+[Illustration: A GROUP OF BUDDHIST MONKS. _Chapter VIII._]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE MONKS
+
+
+Siam has been called the "Kingdom of the Yellow Robe," on account of the
+presence everywhere of large numbers of monks, all of whom wear the
+yellow robe. Every man in Siam enters a monastery at some time or other
+in his life, and lives as a monk for a period varying from a few months
+to many years, or even for the whole of his life. The usual age for
+entering the priestly circle is about nineteen, and the shortest stay
+that can be decently made is for two months. The person seeking
+admission goes to the temple wearing his best clothes, and attended by a
+crowd of friends and relatives, who take presents to the priests. The
+presents include rice, fish, matches, fruit, cigars, betel-nut,
+alarm-clocks, vases of flowers, incense sticks, and dozens of other
+curious things. These are all distributed about the temple floor, till
+the sacred building looks as though it were about to be the scene of a
+glorified "jumble sale."
+
+Occasionally children enter the temple service and wear the yellow robe.
+It often happens that when one of a boy's parents is cremated he becomes
+a "boy-monk," because by this means he hopes to help his father in that
+other world to which he has been called. As a rule, too, each monk has a
+boy servant, or disciple, who cleans out his cell, and does other work
+of a lowly character for him. Monks may not possess silver money, but
+these disciples may receive it and spend it for the benefit of their
+masters.
+
+In the early morning the big bell of the monastery calls the monk to
+rise and go out to beg for his breakfast. He takes a big iron bowl in
+his hands, holds it in front of him, and then with downcast head walks
+slowly through the streets allotted to him. He may not wander into
+another man's street, but must keep to his own. As he walks along, the
+people come out of their houses and put food into the bowl. One puts in
+a handful of rice, another a spoonful of curry. Someone else adds a few
+bananas, or some stale fish, or some scraped coco-nut. The monk looks
+neither to the right hand nor to the left, and gives no thanks to the
+donor of the meal. By the time he gets back to the monastery it is no
+exaggeration to say that his bowl often contains a very varied and weird
+assortment of oddments. It looks rather "a mess," and there is not much
+to be surprised at when we learn that some of the monks, who do not keep
+the rules of their Order very strictly, throw all this motley assortment
+of fish, flesh, fowl, and stale red-herrings to the dogs, afterwards
+partaking of a rather more tempting breakfast that has been prepared for
+them in the monastery. At certain times of the year only a few monks
+from each monastery go in search of food. The others stay at home at the
+temple. If a monk has rich relations, his disciple often receives for
+him well-cooked and appetizing meals upon which to break his fast.
+
+When breakfast is over, the brethren of the yellow robe go into the
+temple for service, after which there is work for those who care to do
+it. The majority do nothing, a form of employment which suits the
+average Siamese a great deal better than work. As the monks are drawn
+from all classes of society, there are always amongst them some who can
+repair the buildings or help in building boats, or even, perhaps, teach
+in the school.
+
+At noon another meal is eaten; after that there is neither tea nor
+supper, so that the monks get nothing more to eat until the next
+morning. They manage to stifle their natural hunger by drinking tea,
+chewing betel-nut, and smoking tobacco.
+
+Towards evening the priests bathe, either in the river or in some pond
+in the temple grounds. As soon as it is dark they must confine
+themselves within the monastery walls. Every evening at about half-past
+six the bell rings to tell the monks that "locking-up" time has arrived.
+The bells, which play so important a part as clocks in the temples, are
+hung in a wooden framework, usually built in three stories. Strictly
+speaking, it is not correct to say that the bells are rung. They are not
+rung--they are beaten with a thick piece of wood. There are generally a
+number of little boys playing about in the cool, shady grounds who are
+only too willing at the proper time to scramble up the rickety wooden
+ladders and hammer away on the bells with a lump of wood.
+
+From July to October, when the heavy rains fall, the priests meet
+together in the evening and chant prayers. The only light in the temple
+is that of dim candles or smoky lamps, and the dull rays fall on the
+kneeling yellow-robed figures below, or lose themselves in the blackness
+of the lofty roofs above, while there rolls out into the evening air the
+rich, mellow notes of the voices in prayer. The frogs in the pond croak
+a sonorous bass, the crickets add their chirpy treble, and the
+fire-flies flash on shrub and palm, all adding their share to the
+evening service.
+
+The cells in which the monks live are small whitewashed rooms, with
+practically no furniture. There are a few mats, perhaps a bedstead--or,
+failing that, a mattress on the floor--a few flowers, and an image of
+the Buddha, the founder of their religion. In a little cupboard the monk
+keeps a teapot and a few tiny cups, and he is always glad to give a
+visitor as much tea as he can drink. Most likely he possesses a
+chessboard and a set of chessmen, for most of the Siamese are fond of
+this ancient game.
+
+The prayers and chants are written with a hard, fine point of ivory or
+iron upon long strips of palm-leaf. The strips are held together by a
+string or a piece of tape passed through a series of holes. The bundle
+is gilded round the edges and carefully preserved in a chest. These
+"books" are written in a language which the common people do not
+understand, and, in fact, only those monks who stay long enough in the
+temple service to learn the language have any idea what the chants are
+about that they so diligently repeat.
+
+Amongst the few possessions which a monk may lawfully hold is a big fan
+made of broad palm-leaves. This he is supposed to hold in front of his
+face as he walks about, in order that he may keep his eyes from
+beholding the things of the world. But as often as not, during the heat
+of the day, he holds it over his head to shield him from the fierce rays
+of the sun. And one can scarcely blame him, for he is not allowed to
+wear a hat of any kind, and every bit of hair has been shaved off the
+top of his head.
+
+There is a chief priest to each monastery, whose business it is to see
+that the temple services are properly conducted, and that the monks
+behave themselves in a becoming manner. If one of the brethren does
+anything wrong, and his superior hears about it, punishment is sure to
+follow. For a very serious offence the guilty one is expelled from the
+monastery and handed over to the police. Such a man gets the severest
+punishment allowed by the law. But if the offence is only a mild one,
+then the punishment is a light one. The sinner will perhaps be set to
+draw water, to sweep the temple courtyard, or to perform some other
+menial duty usually undertaken by the ordinary servants.
+
+Some of the "sins" that the priest may not commit are very curious to
+us, and many of them are, in fact, committed regularly without any
+punishment following. For instance, it is a sin to sleep more than
+twelve inches above the ground, to listen to music, to eat too much, to
+sleep too long, to swing the arms when walking, to burn wood, to wink,
+to slobber or make a noise when eating, to ride on an elephant, or to
+whistle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE TEMPLES
+
+
+There are temples everywhere in Siam, some not much bigger than barns;
+others, great buildings with high roofs and stately surroundings. Some
+are quite new, gay in all their glory of gold and varied colour; others
+are old, dirty, and crumbling to dust. Temples are not usually repaired;
+they are built and then allowed to go to ruin. A temple is not a place
+to worship in; for, strictly speaking, there is no one to worship.
+Buddha does not ask for people to kneel to him. He was a man, not a god,
+and he became holy because he lived a sinless life. Any other man who
+lived a life like his would become a Buddha too. And a temple is not
+built to pray in, because there is no one to whom to pray. Every man
+must save himself by his own deeds, and Buddha does not pretend to hear
+and answer prayers. In the temples sacred books are read, chants are
+sung, and occasionally sermons are preached, but there is no worship and
+no prayer quite in the way we understand and practise these things.
+
+To understand, then, why so many temples are built, you must know
+something more about the Buddhist religion. Buddha taught that when we
+die our souls pass into other bodies. If we have been very wicked in
+this life, we may be reborn as cats, or toads, or beetles. If we have
+been very good, we may reappear as nobles or princes, or perhaps live
+in another world as angels. The man who has lived the perfect life, who
+has neither thought, said, nor done anything wrong, goes to Nirvana,
+where there is everlasting peace, and where no trouble, sorrow, or
+sickness of any kind is ever known. When Nirvana is reached, the soul
+rests for ever, and is not born again, either in the heavens or on the
+earth.
+
+When a person dies, all the good and all the evil he has done are added
+up, and a kind of balance is struck. The happiness or misery of the
+person in his next life depends on whether he has a good or a bad
+balance. There are many things that we may do in this life that go to
+the good side of the account. To do these things is to "make merit."
+Some actions only make a little merit; others make a great deal of
+merit. One of the best ways of getting a big figure on the right side of
+the account is, according to the priests, to build a temple. Hence, when
+a man is rich enough, he builds a house for the Buddha, where his image
+may be seen, his lessons learned, and his praises sung. But once the
+temple is built, the matter is finished, and there is no need to repair
+it. The Buddhist says that though the temples will crumble away, yet his
+children will build others, so that there will always be plenty of
+churches, and many opportunities of making merit in this way.
+
+[Illustration: THE TEMPLE OF WAT POH. _Chapter IX._]
+
+The Siamese word _wat_ means all the buildings enclosed in the sacred
+wall, and includes the houses where the priests live, the holy buildings
+where the images are kept, and numerous spiral ornaments that cover
+relics. The most sacred of these buildings is the _bawt_. Near the four
+corners, north, south, east, and west, there are four stones, carved in
+the shape of the leaf of the Bo-tree, the tree under which Gautama
+became Buddha. When the _bawt_ is erected, consecrated water is poured
+over these stones, and evil spirits are thus for ever prevented from
+entering.
+
+In the temple grounds there are always a number of graceful tapering
+structures, which cover relics, or supposed relics. You will see some of
+these in several of the pictures in this book. They sometimes stand
+directly on the ground, but at other times the slender spires will be
+found over the doorways, or even on the tops of the buildings. There is
+a story which says that after Buddha's death one of his disciples gave
+away all the property of the Teacher to the other followers. He meant to
+keep nothing at all for himself, but on finding one of Buddha's teeth,
+he looked longingly upon it, and then took it and quietly hid it in the
+coil of hair which many Hindus wear upon the top of the head. One of the
+gods in the heavens saw the deed, flew swiftly down to earth, snatched
+the precious relic from its hiding-place, and buried it under a great
+mound, which he built in a tapering fashion to resemble the tuft of hair
+in which the tooth had been concealed. Others, however, say that the
+shape of these relic mounds is due to the fact that Buddha told his
+disciples, as he lay on his death-bed, to bury his bones under a mound
+shaped like a heap of rice.
+
+The chief building has straight walls with rectangular openings for
+windows. There are no beautiful arches, no carving, and no stained
+glass. The roof is made in tiers, which overlap one another, and are
+covered with beautiful coloured tiles--amber, gold, green, scarlet, and
+blue. Groups of great teak pillars are so arranged that a cool and shady
+walk surrounds the building. The outside, with the exception of the
+roof, is whitewashed, and when the midday sun beats down upon the _wat_
+the place glitters and shines--one big splash of white crowned with
+fantastic colours.
+
+Inside there is little light, and if the roof be high the rafters are
+hidden in darkness. At the far end sits an enormous gilded image of
+Buddha, surrounded by smaller images of himself and his disciples, some
+with raised hands, as if about to speak; others with fans before their
+faces, as if to shield them from the evils and the sorrows of the world.
+The number of these images is sometimes very great. In one of the
+temples in Ayuthia, the old capital, there are no fewer than 20,000 of
+them.
+
+At the end of the ridge of the temple roof, at the corners of the
+gables, and in many other places, there are graceful curved horns. These
+represent the head of the Naga, or snake with seven heads, who curled
+himself round the Teacher's body and shielded him with his seven heads
+when he was attacked by the Evil One under the Bo-tree.
+
+In connexion with the temple there are one or more _salas_, or
+rest-houses. To build a _sala_ is another way of making merit, and as it
+costs less to put up one of these wooden rest-houses than to build a
+temple, there are thousands of them in the country. They are to be
+found upon the banks of the rivers and canals, in lonely parts of the
+jungle, on waste land near the towns and villages--in fact, almost
+anywhere and everywhere. They consist of a platform raised a few feet
+above the ground, and covered by a roof which is supported on a few
+poles. There are no walls or partitions. Here the traveller may rest,
+eat, and sleep. He pays no rent, gets no comforts, and is often
+interfered with by the local lunatic, the casual traveller, or a crowd
+of merry, inquisitive children. He may not complain, for the slender
+platform is free to all comers.
+
+One of the best-known temples in Bangkok is at the Golden Hill. This
+hill is made of bricks and mortar, and stands about two hundred feet
+high. Trees, shrubs, and creepers have grown over it, and it is not at
+first easy to believe that the hill is the work of man. On the top is a
+snow-white spire, and under the spire, in a gilded shrine, there is a
+glass model of one of Buddha's teeth. For three days every year the
+people come in thousands to worship this tooth. They buy a bit of
+gold-leaf or a few wax flowers, and then they mount to the top of the
+hill. There they stick the gold leaf on the iron railings round the
+shrine, light the candles, throw the wax flowers into a big bonfire, and
+bang a few drums. When they have completed all these little acts of
+devotion, they go to the foot of the hill again. At the bottom a grand
+fair is going on. There are lotteries of all kinds, tea-houses, crowds
+of merry young men and women, dozens of yellow-robed priests, side-shows
+with giant women and two-headed snakes. It is all laughter, chatter, and
+enjoyment.
+
+In another temple there is an image of Buddha asleep. The idol is 175
+feet long, and has a whole building to itself. The gigantic figure is
+made of brick and covered with gilded cement. It is 18 feet across the
+chest; the feet are 5 yards long; the toes, which are each of equal
+length, measure 1 yard.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE SHAVING OF THE TOP-KNOT
+
+
+Sometimes when the traveller is passing along one of the rivers or
+canals he will hear the sound of merry music close at hand. He probably
+pulls ashore, and goes to see what is happening. There is no need to
+wait for invitations in this free-and-easy country. He makes his way to
+the place where the band is doing its best to deafen all the poor
+creatures within reach, and there he finds a motley crowd--men and women
+in their best and brightest clothes, priests in their most brilliant
+yellow, actresses with chalked faces and hideous masks, dogs, cats, and
+children. Amongst the many people assembled together there is one child,
+about eleven or thirteen years old, laden with jewellery--necklaces,
+gold chains, armlets, bracelets, and anklets. It is on this child's
+account that the people are feasting together, the theatre playing, and
+the drums booming. We will suppose that the child is a boy. He is
+holding a great party. The visitors have come to see him get his hair
+cut! This, however, is not an ordinary visit to a barber, but a
+ceremony as important as a wedding or a funeral.
+
+From the very earliest years the heads of the children are shaved
+completely, with the exception of one little tuft in the centre of the
+head. Each day this precious tuft is oiled and curled, a jewelled pin is
+stuck through it, and a tiny wreath of freshly woven flowers is twined
+around it. No scissors are ever allowed to touch the cherished lock
+until the boy is eleven, thirteen, or fifteen years old, and by that
+time it is often a foot or more long.
+
+When the parents think that the proper time has almost arrived for the
+top-knot to be removed, they visit an astrologer, who fixes a lucky day
+for the operation. If the hair were not cut off on a lucky day, and in
+just the proper fashion, no one knows what terrible things might happen
+to the child. He might become ill or insane, or he might die, or, worse
+still, demons might come and live inside him. So extremely great care
+has to be taken that all is done in a fitting manner. After the
+astrologer has appointed the day, people are invited to be present at
+the ceremonies. Actresses, priests, and friends are called together, and
+for two or three days there are prayers and plays, feasts and fiddling.
+
+The performance is opened by the priests. They ascend to a platform some
+feet above the ground, and sit down cross-legged like tailors on the
+mats. They chant long passages from the sacred books, and ask the
+spirits to be kind to the boy and to keep all evil away from him. While
+they are chanting, they hold a piece of white thread in their hands.
+One end of this thread is tied round the clasped hands of the child, and
+as the priests call down blessings from above, these blessings pass
+through the hands of the priests, along the thread, and so into the body
+and soul of the boy. It works like a telegraph wire, and no one sees the
+good influences flashing along the cotton. There is also a thread
+fastened right round the house and the gardens to keep out the naughty
+little demons that take a delight in spoiling the proceedings.
+
+On the second day, the chief person present takes a pair of scissors and
+clips off the top-knot, after which a professional barber comes along
+with a nice sharp razor, and the boy's head is shaved completely, so
+that it looks very much like a new clean ostrich egg. The boy now
+dresses himself in white robes, and the priests lead him to a seat
+raised from the ground and shaded by a canopy of white cloth. First the
+parents, then the relations, and last of all the friends, pour holy
+water over the boy's head. Everybody likes to play his part, and there
+the youngster sits in his drenched robes, as the crowd files by and half
+drowns him with the water. When the last person has emptied the last
+bowl, the boy is dressed in the gayest clothes that he possesses, or
+that can be borrowed for the occasion, and is seated on a throne. On
+each side of him is a stand laden with rice, fruit, flowers, and other
+things. These are offerings to the spirits of the air. The band strikes
+up; the people form a kind of procession, and walk round the child five
+times. Each person carries a lighted candle, which is blown out when the
+fifth turn is made. The smoke is wafted towards the young person on the
+throne, and as it circles round his shaven crown, it bears towards him a
+supply of courage and good luck sufficient to last him for the rest of
+his life.
+
+All this time the child is probably more bored than delighted with the
+honour paid to him. But the next part of the ceremony gives him every
+satisfaction. It would please anybody. The relatives and friends present
+money to the child, each giving according to his means, so that if the
+boy has many rich relatives he gets quite a handsome sum. The gifts vary
+in value from about half a crown to ten pounds.
+
+All is not yet over, for a long and jolly feast is the necessary
+termination of the important event. The priests are served first. When
+they have finished, the rest of the party fall rapidly and heartily upon
+the multitude of tempting dishes that have been prepared.
+
+People who are very poor and have no friends merely go to a certain
+temple and ask one of the priests to cut off the top-knot. Rich people,
+on the other hand, spend enormous sums of money in entertaining their
+friends and in giving presents. The gifts to a young princess on one of
+these occasions amounted to £10,000.
+
+The hairs that have been cut off are separated into two bundles, long
+and short. The short hairs are put into a little vessel made of
+plantain-leaves, and sent adrift on the ebb-tide in the nearest canal or
+river. As they float away, they carry with them all the bad temper, the
+greediness, and the pride of their former owner. The shaven child gets a
+new start in life, freed from all that was disagreeable in his
+character. The long hairs are kept till he makes a pilgrimage to worship
+at Buddha's footprint on the sacred hill at Prabhat. This footprint is
+about as big, and exactly the same shape, as a bath. The hairs are given
+to the priests, who are supposed to make them into brushes for sweeping
+the footprint; but in reality so much hair is presented to the priests
+each year that they are unable to use it all. They wait till the
+pilgrims have gone home again, when they throw all the hair that they do
+not want into a fire.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+HOUSES
+
+
+The houses are built of wood, and are raised above the ground on piles,
+so that when the rainy season comes and the plains are flooded, the
+floors are left high and dry. In the dry season the cattle are stabled
+under the houses. A stable under your bedroom is not perhaps the
+pleasantest arrangement that could be imagined, but in parts of the
+country there are bands of robbers who spend their evenings in stealing
+cattle. When the robbers try to move the animals, the animals make a
+noise, wake the owner, and give him a chance to prevent the theft. When
+the country is flooded, the pony, who is generally a pet, is led up an
+inclined plane to the little veranda, where it lives and is treated as a
+member of the family.
+
+[Illustration: MOUNT PRABHAT. _Page 48._]
+
+The chief woods used in building houses are teak and bamboo. Teak is a
+very hard wood. It is not affected by damp, and resists the attacks of
+the so-called "white ant."
+
+The floors of the native houses are made of teak planks, or more usually
+of plaited bamboo. Through the holes that are left, the air comes up
+from below, keeping the rooms cool, but at the same time filling them
+with most unpleasant odours. A great deal of the ordinary domestic
+refuse is got rid of by the simple plan of pushing it through the holes
+in the floor, and leaving it to rot in the space between the house and
+the ground.
+
+Fortunately for the health of the inhabitants, pariah dogs abound
+everywhere. They feed chiefly on this refuse, thus playing the part of
+scavengers. The pariahs have no owners, and no one takes any care or
+notice of them. They are thin and bony, frightfully ugly, fond of
+barking at all hours of the day or the night, but not given to biting,
+for they are thorough cowards. A hundred of them would run away from a
+small boy, provided he had a big stick in his hand.
+
+The number of rooms in the house is always an odd one, for even numbers
+are considered unlucky. A small house would contain at least three
+rooms, which we may call the drawing-room, the bedroom, and the kitchen.
+The third of these rooms will be described in the next chapter.
+
+The drawing-room contains no chairs, tables, pianos, or pictures. In
+fact, it contains no furniture of any kind, with perhaps the exception
+of a few mats on the floor, on which the people sit. When visitors
+call, they are offered tea in tiny cups that hold about as much as a big
+table-spoon. This tea, which is taken without milk or sugar, is of a
+beautiful light golden colour, and has a faint but pleasant and
+refreshing odour. The chief thing offered to the visitor is betel-nut,
+the fruit of the tall, slender areca-palm. So important a part does the
+betel-nut play in the daily life of the native, that, if possible, a
+house is always built near a grove of areca-palms, in order that there
+may be a never-failing supply of the nut. Betel is not eaten alone, but
+with a mixture of turmeric, seri-leaf, lime, and tobacco. Chewing betel
+produces copious supplies of blood-red saliva. If this is ejected upon
+wood or stone, it leaves nasty rusty-red stains that cannot be removed
+even by the most diligent scrubbing. Hence a spittoon is a very
+necessary domestic article. Everybody chews; everybody possesses
+spittoons. You will see them by the side of the mother rocking the
+cradle, by the side of the teacher in the school, by the side of the
+judge in the law courts, by the side of the priest as he chants his
+matin or evensong in the temple, by the side of the King as he sits upon
+his throne.
+
+In time, the teeth become coal-black. They are then regarded as being
+much more beautiful than when they were white. A native saying runs:
+"Any dog can have white teeth." In Bangkok the American dentists keep
+supplies of false black teeth, and when a prince or a nobleman loses one
+of his own teeth, he can buy another black one and so not spoil his
+appearance.
+
+The second room of the house is the bedroom, which is also used as a
+lumber-room, and where, if anyone be ill, a number of gilded images of
+Buddha will be found. There are no bedsteads. People sleep on a kind of
+mat placed on the floor. This is surrounded by curtains to keep out the
+mosquitoes. Sleep would be quite impossible without some form of
+protection against the bites of these wicked little creatures.
+
+When lying down, the head must not point to the west. The sun dies his
+daily death in that part of the heavens, and the west is therefore an
+unlucky direction. The sleeper must lie pointing north and south, and
+then he will be quite sure of complete freedom from evil spirits and
+angry demons during the dark hours of the night.
+
+The walls and floors of the houses, as we have seen, are made of wood.
+The roofs are thatched with the leaf of the attap-palm. In the dry
+season every part of the dwelling becomes excessively dry. A stray spark
+will often set on fire one of these houses of grass and wood, and then,
+one after another, other habitations fall a prey to the flames. There is
+no fire brigade, and it would not be of any use if there were one, for
+there is no public water-supply. When a fire breaks out, soldiers are
+sent to the scene of the disaster, armed, not with rifles, but with
+hatchets. As quickly as they can, they chop down a great many houses in
+the neighbourhood of those that are on fire, and in this way prevent the
+spread of the flames.
+
+The Siamese are a cleanly people as far as their bodies are concerned.
+They bathe at least two or three times a day, but their houses are never
+cleaned. Cobwebs grow thicker and thicker with dust, till they look
+like ropes; insects of all kinds multiply without interference;
+mosquito-nets become so caked with dirt that it is a wonder any
+respectable mosquito ever wishes to go inside; floors are never
+scrubbed; walls are never dusted. There is no such process as
+spring-cleaning, except when a fire performs the deed, and sweeps away
+house, refuse, and vermin, all at one and the same time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+FOOD AND DRESS
+
+
+The third necessary room in a Siamese house is the kitchen, where the
+two daily meals are prepared. There are no cooking-ranges and no
+fireplaces of European pattern. Food is cooked and water boiled over
+small charcoal furnaces, usually made of earthenware. The little furnace
+has the shape of a bucket. Half-way down there is a tray perforated with
+holes, on which the charcoal is placed. Below the shelf, in one side of
+the utensil, there is a hole. A draught is obtained by waving a fan
+backwards and forwards in front of this hole. The air enters through the
+aperture, ascends through the openings in the shelf, and so keeps the
+lighted charcoal glowing. The earthenware pots in which the food is
+cooked are supported by the top rim of the furnace. Every pot requires a
+separate furnace to itself, but as rice is often the only food that
+requires the application of heat, this causes but little difficulty,
+and few kitchens would contain more than two or three of these simple
+fireplaces.
+
+The chief food is rice. This is washed three or four times in different
+changes of water, and then placed in cold water over the charcoal fire.
+As soon as the water boils, it is poured away, and the cooking is
+finished in the steam of the water left behind. When everything is
+ready, the rice is turned out into a dish; each grain is swollen to
+quite a large size, is dry, and as white as snow.
+
+With the rice various kinds of curry are eaten. They are made from
+vegetables, fruit, and fish. Frog, decayed prawns, stale fish, and other
+choice morsels figure in the menu. All the curries are highly flavoured
+with vinegar, pepper, and strong-tasting spices. The Siamese are so
+accustomed to these highly flavoured dishes that they would look upon a
+meal of turkey and plum-pudding as utterly tasteless and insipid. One of
+the sauces in common use contains chillies, stale prawns, black pepper,
+garlic, onions, citron-juice, ginger, and brine!
+
+When the members of the family sit down to take a meal, they squat on
+the floor. A big bowl of rice is placed in the centre of the ring, and
+round it are arranged smaller basins of curry. Everybody helps himself,
+so that the fastest eater gets the biggest share. Forks and knives are
+not used, and very often spoons also are lacking. In such cases fingers
+take the place of spoons, and they seem to serve the purpose equally
+well. Of course, the fingers get greasy and sticky, but they can be put
+in the mouth and licked clean again quite easily and quickly.
+
+Each member of the family knows how to cook--father, mother, and
+children--for there are few dishes to prepare, and the preparation of
+these is an art soon acquired. Two meals only are taken each day--one in
+the morning and another in the early evening. Between whiles tea is
+drunk, tobacco is smoked, and betel-nut is chewed. The hours for meals
+are rather irregular, and often the hungry members do not wait for those
+whose appetites are less keen, but begin as soon as ever the rice is
+boiled. Amongst the rich the men eat first and by themselves. What they
+leave serves for their wives and children, and the last remnants of all
+are thrown to the dogs.
+
+As dessert there are many kinds of fruit, some of which are unknown in
+this country. Amongst the most popular fruits are young coco-nuts; the
+ripest of bananas; mangoes, that taste at first like a mixture of
+turpentine and carrots, but which, after a few efforts, are found to be
+as pleasant to the palate as the apple or the pear; mangosteens--little
+sweet snow-white balls set in crimson caskets; durians, that smell like
+bad drains, but taste, when one is used to them, like a mixture of
+strawberries, ices, honey, and all other things that are pleasant to
+eat.
+
+When the meal is over, each person washes his own rice-bowl, and turns
+it upside down in a basket in the corner of the room to drip and dry
+till it is needed again.
+
+Dress is a very simple matter. There are no such things as fashions. The
+smallest children wear no clothing at all, except, perhaps, a necklace
+of coral or beads. The garment worn as a covering for the lower part of
+the body is the same for all--King and peasant, man, woman, and child.
+As seen in pictures and photographs, it resembles a pair of baggy
+knickerbockers. It consists of a long strip of coloured cloth, about the
+same size and shape as a bath-towel. The method of draping it about the
+body is not easily explained on paper. This much, however, may be said:
+there are no pins, tapes, buttons, or fastenings of any kind; but the
+_panoong_, as it is called, is so cleverly twisted and tied, that it can
+be worn at all times and under all circumstances without any fear of it
+ever becoming loose. You may run in it, sleep in it, or swim in it, and
+you will always be perfectly cool and comfortable. This is the only
+native garment for men, though in the capital, and in other places where
+white men are seen, the people have learned to wear white linen jackets.
+These are buttoned to the throat, and collars and shirts are not
+required. Shoes and stockings are not known, except where the European
+has taught their use. The soles of the feet get so hard that, in time,
+they are like leather itself, and cut or wounded feet are very seldom
+seen.
+
+The women wear a coloured scarf, called the _pahom_, wound round the
+upper part of the body. This is the only addition to the costume of the
+men ever invented by the ladies of Siam. As for hats, there are no such
+things, except a few big straw-plaited erections that look like baskets
+turned upside down, and which are worn by the women who sit selling
+their goods in the markets.
+
+The _panoong_ and the _pahom_ are of brightly coloured material, and a
+Siamese crowd is always a picturesque sight. According to one of the
+many superstitions that prevail in the country, every day of the week is
+under the rule of some particular planet, and to be fortunate throughout
+the day one should wear garments and jewels of the same colour as the
+ruling planet. Many rich people do actually observe this custom, and
+wear red silk and rubies on Sundays in honour of the sun; white and
+moonstones on Monday, the day of the moon; light red and coral on
+Tuesday, the day of Mars; green and emeralds on Wednesday, the day of
+Jupiter; stripes and cat's-eyes for Jupiter's Thursday; silver blue and
+diamonds on Friday, when Venus rules; and dark blue and sapphires on
+Saturday, when the chief planet is Saturn.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+FISHING
+
+
+One of the chief commandments of the Buddhist religion is, "Thou shalt
+not kill." This does not refer merely to the lives of human beings, but
+to all creatures--mosquitoes, fleas, flies, or elephants. The reason for
+the commandment is that, as we have already explained, when a person
+dies, his soul is reborn again in another body, and this body may
+possibly be that of some animal. Hence, if you kill a mosquito, you may
+possibly be killing your own or some one else's long-deceased relative.
+The rule about not taking life is very generally observed, but is
+neglected in the case of fish. The Siamese excuses himself for fishing,
+on the ground that he does not kill the fish. He only pulls them out of
+the water; they die a natural death.
+
+[Illustration: A FISHING BOAT OFF THE ISLAND PAGODA OF PAKNAM]
+
+In Lower Siam fish forms an important part of the food of the people. In
+Upper Siam it is looked upon as a great luxury, for the rivers in the
+north are singularly poor in animal life. The absence of fish in the
+streams of Upper Siam is probably due to the fact that in the dry season
+the water is too shallow to allow the fish to live, and that in the wet
+season the current, swollen by the heavy rains, is extremely rapid, and
+drives them down-stream.
+
+Of the many methods employed for catching fish, the favourite one is by
+means of enormous traps. These traps are made by fixing a number of
+bamboos upright in shallow water. A long V-shaped neck is formed, which
+is sometimes nearly a quarter of a mile long, and which leads by a
+narrow opening into a square space measuring about sixty feet each way.
+The fish swim along the V-shaped passage, and, having once entered the
+square trap, few of them ever find the way out again. They are removed
+from the trap every two or three days by means of nets.
+
+Many of the canals are bordered for miles with a weed which has a large
+flat leaf. In places the mass of weeds is so thick that only a small
+passage of water remains in the centre for the use of the boats. Under
+the weeds fish are harboured. Bamboo stakes are fixed here and there in
+the mud to keep the weeds from floating away. Once or twice a year men
+surround a portion of this mass of floating water-plants with nets that
+reach to the bottom of the canal. Thus the fish within the enclosed area
+cannot escape. The stalks of the weeds are cut close down, and then the
+whole net is drawn ashore, enclosing vast quantities of fish. Netting
+fish in this way is not permitted in those places where the canal banks
+pass in front of a temple, for opposite the grounds of a temple all life
+is sacred, and the fish that live there are free from interference.
+
+A circular hand-net is also used for catching fish. For permission to
+catch fish in this way a tax of fourteen pence for each net must be
+paid. The fisherman stands on the bow of his canoe, and throws the net
+with an easy swing into the water. It is pulled up by a string fastened
+to the centre. The edges, which are weighted by a small chain, fall
+together and enclose any fish which happen to have been lying beneath it
+when it was thrown into the water.
+
+Prawns are plentiful. They are caught in nets of very small mesh. Two
+boats go out together for a little distance from the shore, and then
+separate. Between the boats a heavily weighted net is suspended. When
+the net is stretched as far as possible, the boats move in towards the
+shore, dragging it with them. In this way thousands of prawns and other
+small fish are easily taken. The prawns are pounded into a paste with
+salt, forming a mixture that tastes something like anchovy sauce. A
+_fermented_ mixture of fish and shrimps is manufactured for export to
+Singapore, Hong-Kong, and Java, where it is looked upon as a great
+dainty by the Malays and the Chinese.
+
+Long poles are driven into the sand in those waters where mussels and
+other shell-fish are abundant. After a while the poles are covered with
+the shell-fish which have fastened on them. The poles are then pulled up
+and scraped.
+
+"A canoe with a white board dipping into the water is paddled along near
+the bank at night, and the startled fish, endeavouring to jump over it,
+are caught in the air by a net which projects from the far side. We can
+easily form some idea of the efficiency of this method, for as the
+launch tows us up-stream, fish are continually jumping away from the
+bows of the boat, and it will be unlucky if in the course of the day one
+does not alight on board. Fine fish two or three pounds in weight may
+thus be secured without trouble. Large numbers of fish are left in the
+fields as the water goes down, and every pond is the scene of active
+fishing operations. I have camped upon the bank of a river and imagined
+that I heard waves breaking on a sandy shore, only to find that the
+noise was caused by shoals of small fish jumping" (Thompson).
+
+One of the commonest fish is _plah-tu_, about the size of a herring.
+When fresh, it tastes like trout; when smoked, it resembles kippered
+herring. _Plah-tu_ is caught in the Gulf of Siam during the north-east
+monsoon. The fishing-boats return in the early morning and transfer
+their cargo to buffalo-carts, that carry it to the village. There the
+fish are cleaned. The gills are removed, and these, together with all
+the other refuse, are thrown into strong brine. The mixture of fishy
+odds and ends is afterwards sold as "fish-sauce."
+
+There are mud-fish, that come up out of the water and crawl about in the
+slime, and there is a fish that hides under the banks and shoots drops
+of water at the flies that are hovering just above. This fish is an
+excellent marksman, and brings down many a dainty morsel for his meal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+RICE
+
+
+Rice is the most important crop grown in Siam. It is almost the sole
+food of everyone, from the King to the poorest peasant. Horses, cattle,
+dogs, and cats are fed on it; beer and spirits are made from it; it is
+eaten boiled, fried, stewed, and baked, in curries, cakes and sauces; it
+is used at all festivals in connection with certain superstitions; and
+both the opening and the closing of the season of cultivation are marked
+by special holidays. A rich man invests his money in rice-fields; the
+law courts spend most of their time settling quarrels about the
+ownership of rice-land; and when a man has nothing else to talk about,
+he talks about the next rice crop, just as in England we talk about the
+weather. Most of the boats passing up and down the river carry rice;
+most of the big steamers that leave the port are taking this valuable
+and important food product to other lands.
+
+The whole of the land in the country is supposed to belong to the King,
+but anybody who wishes to plant rice may go into the jungle and clear a
+space of ground by burning down the long grass and the trees. For this
+land the farmer pays no rent, and after a time he can claim it as his
+own. He pays to the Government, however, a tax upon the land which he
+cultivates. The farms are small, averaging about eight acres: such a
+farm will comfortably support a family of four or five.
+
+When the ground has been cleared, the farmers wait for the rain, which
+falls in torrents, and in due course makes the ground soft enough to
+permit of ploughing. The plough is made of wood, and consists of a bent
+stick stuck in a pointed wooden block. The plough cuts a shallow furrow
+about two inches deep and five or six inches wide. It is drawn by
+buffaloes, formidable-looking beasts with immense spreading horns, which
+sometimes measure as much as eight or nine feet from tip to tip,
+measured round the curve.
+
+When the field has been ploughed, it is harrowed with a square harrow
+made of bamboo and provided with a number of straight wooden teeth. The
+result of ploughing and harrowing the wet ground is to churn it up into
+a kind of porridgy mess of slimy grey mud.
+
+Rice can only be grown where there is abundance of moisture. In Siam the
+peasants depend for their water-supply upon the heavy rains, and then
+upon the rise of the rivers after the rains have ceased. The floods not
+merely provide water, but when they subside they leave behind them a
+deposit of mud so rich and fertile that manuring is not necessary.
+
+There are forty different kinds of rice, of which about six are widely
+cultivated in Siam. The natives divide all the known varieties into two
+classes, which they call "field rice" and "garden rice."
+
+Field rice is grown in places where there is an exceptionally heavy
+rainfall. The seed is scattered broadcast on the fields, and left to
+grow without much more attention. As the water rises, the rice grows at
+the same pace, and so always keeps its head above the surface. The rate
+of growth of one variety is almost unbelievable. Plants have been known
+to grow as much as a foot in twelve hours, and the final length of the
+stalk is often as much as ten feet.
+
+Garden rice is carefully sown and tended. The seeds are first sown as
+thickly as they can grow, in well-watered patches. They soon sprout, and
+grow rapidly. When they are a few inches high they are pulled up and
+made into bundles of a hundred or so, neatly tied together. The mud is
+removed from the roots by a skilful kick which is given to the bundle as
+it is drawn from the soil. The bundles are taken to the fields by men,
+women, and children, and transplanted in long rows. The fields have been
+covered with water and trampled into a thick mud by the hoofs of the
+buffaloes. The young shoots are handed to the women and girls, and they
+push the roots down into the soft mud, working very cleverly and
+rapidly. A good worker can plant an acre in this way in about three
+days.
+
+The method of reaping the rice depends on the state of the fields. If
+the floods have gone, the rice is reaped with the sickle and bound into
+sheaves. The sheaves are dried in the sun and then taken away in
+buffalo-carts or in bullock-wagons. But if the fields are still under
+water, the people row out in boats and canoes, cut off the ripe heads
+with a sickle, and drop them into small baskets placed in the bottom of
+the boat. The reapers are very careless, and drop much of the ripe grain
+into the water. The rice is dried in bundles, placed on frames that have
+been erected in the fields. The birds are kept away by boys, who are
+armed with long whips. On the end of the lash they stick a pellet of
+mud. When they crack the whip the mud flies off, and so clever are they
+at this form of slinging that they rarely miss the bird at which they
+aim. When the water has all gone from the fields, the long stalks that
+have been left standing are burned.
+
+The threshing is done by buffaloes on a floor which is specially
+prepared by covering it with a paste made of soil, cow-dung, and water.
+After a few days the plaster sets into a hard, firm covering to the
+ground. A pole is fixed in the centre, and two buffaloes, yoked side by
+side, are made to walk round and round the pole, all the while treading
+the grain under their feet. The threshing takes place on moonlight
+nights, and is the occasion of much merriment. The children never dream
+of going to bed. They play in the heaps of straw, or dance round the big
+bonfires to the sound of fiddles, tom-toms, and drums. Their parents
+chat and joke the long night through, and in the shadows the red ends
+of their cigarettes gleam unceasingly, while the pale green fire-flies
+flit to and fro, and seem to wonder what it is all about. When the
+threshing is over, the farmer gives a feast to his neighbours to
+celebrate the event. His heaps of grain are spread evenly over the
+threshing floor, the straw is piled up in little stacks, and around all
+is twined the usual white thread to keep away the evil spirits.
+
+To winnow the rice, it is thrown into the air by means of a wooden
+spade, or poured from one wide, shallow basket to another. The wind
+blows through the mixture of grain and chaff and carries the chaff away.
+The grain is stored in large baskets made of cane and plastered outside
+with mud. The rice is usually milled at home. The grain is placed in a
+big hollow in a block of wood. There is a long lever, bearing at one end
+a heavy wooden hammer. A girl jumps on the other end of the lever and so
+lifts the hammer. She hops off again, and the hammer falls upon the rice
+in the hollow block and smashes it up. For hours the women and girls
+jump patiently on and off the long handle, and in any small village you
+can hear the steady thump, thump, thump of the hammers from morning to
+night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A PLOUGHING CEREMONY
+
+
+We have already described the way in which rice is cultivated in a land
+where the success of the rice-crops means life to thousands of people.
+It is not surprising to find, under these circumstances, that before the
+planting of the rice takes place there is held each year a ceremony of
+great importance. This is a "ploughing festival," and until the holiday
+has been celebrated no one is supposed to begin the cultivation of his
+rice-fields.
+
+[Illustration: THE ANNUAL RICE PLOUGHING FESTIVAL. _Page 65._]
+
+About March or April the rains arrive, and the farmer turns his thoughts
+to the work that lies before him. An astrologer is consulted as to a
+lucky day for the ploughing festival, and when this has been fixed every
+one waits anxiously to see what will happen, for on this day much will
+be learned about the prospects of the coming season.
+
+A certain Prince presides over the festival, and for the time being
+represents the King. He wears a crown, has a royal umbrella, and even
+receives a portion of the taxes. At one time his personal servants and
+followers were allowed to take goods without paying for them from the
+shops along the route which is followed by the procession.
+
+Early in the morning the Prince rises and puts on a special suit of
+clothes of the richest material. Over his robes he wears a long cloak of
+white net which is heavily embroidered with figures of fruit and
+flowers, worked in gold and silver. Before he leaves his house he
+entertains his friends, so that they may get a good look at him in all
+his holiday finery. When he is quite ready he sits in a gilded chair,
+and is carried on the shoulders of eight stalwart men. He is accompanied
+by a crowd of noblemen, some of whom carry curious things that are
+considered necessary for the success of the fête. Amongst these are a
+royal umbrella, a large fan such as the priests carry, a sword decorated
+with white flowers, and a small gold cow with a wreath of sweet-smelling
+blossoms round its neck.
+
+In front of the state chair there are men in scarlet coats and
+knickerbockers, beating the usual drums in the usual way. Soldiers in
+old-fashioned uniforms, priests in yellow robes, nobles in cloth of
+gold, and men and women of all classes dressed in the brightest colours,
+pass slowly along in front of the bearers. Behind the chair are more
+priests who blow weird sounds from horns and conch-shells, and last of
+all a long string of sight-seers, all of whom are interested in what is
+going to happen.
+
+With much merry noise, the procession wends its way to a piece of ground
+outside the city walls. Here a few simple preparations have been made.
+There is a roofed-in platform made of bamboo, attap-leaf, and boards,
+and some rather soiled drapery of red and white cloth. In front of the
+open booth are three bamboo-stakes, firmly fixed in the ground, and
+marking out the space which the Prince has to plough. In a shed not far
+away are the cream-coloured bullocks that are to draw the plough. A cord
+of sacred cotton encircles the booth, the shed, and the selected
+ground, and, as usual, keeps out all the evil spirits, who are simply
+aching to get inside the thread, play tricks, and upset the proceedings.
+
+Within the guarded area is the wooden plough, similar to that described
+in the last chapter, but gaily decorated with ribbons and flowers.
+Moreover, the ends of the yoke and the end of the beam are both
+beautifully carved, and where the yoke is fastened to the beam there is
+a little gilded idol.
+
+When the Prince arrives on the ground he is shown three pieces of cloth.
+They are folded up neatly, and look exactly alike, but they differ in
+length. The Prince looks earnestly at the three little parcels, and
+chooses one. If he chooses the longest piece of cloth, then there will
+be little rain that year, and men will be able to let the _panoong_ drop
+to the ankle. If he chooses the shortest, a wet season will follow, and
+the men who work in the wet rice-fields will have to pull the _panoong_
+high above the knee. Having chosen the cloth, he fastens it round his
+body, and is ready to begin ploughing. He holds the handle of the plough
+and a long rod at the same time, and he has to guide the plough nine
+times round the space marked out by the three bamboos. A nobleman walks
+in front of the bullocks, sprinkling consecrated water on the ground.
+After the third journey a number of old women take part in the
+performance. They are the very oldest women that can be found, but they
+are richly dressed, and when their work for the day is done, they are
+allowed to keep their dresses as payment for their services. They carry
+a gilded rod over the shoulder. From the ends of this rod are suspended
+two baskets, one gilded and the other silvered. The baskets are filled
+with consecrated grain. Three times more the plough is guided along the
+proper path, the women following the Prince, and scattering the precious
+seed to right and left. Everybody tries to get a few grains to mix with
+the ordinary seed that is to be used in sowing the fields; for if the
+consecrated seed be mixed with seed of the ordinary kind, then will the
+harvest be much richer.
+
+Finally, the Prince makes three more journeys, after which he leaves the
+ground. The sacred cord is broken, and the people rush about all over
+the place, picking up any of the grains that they can find, and
+carefully treasuring them for the good luck they will bring.
+
+But the ceremony is not yet over. There still remains one very important
+deed to be done. The oxen are unyoked and led back to their shed, and in
+front of them are placed small baskets made of banana-leaves, and filled
+with different kinds of seed. One basket contains rice, another
+grass-seed, another maize, and so on. If the bullocks eat up the maize
+and leave the rice, then the rice-crops that year will be poor, and the
+maize-crops will be good. Thus it happens that on this day the farmer
+finds out what kind of weather he is going to have, and what kind of
+grain will yield the richest crop.
+
+The Prince is carried back to his home again, with drums beating, horns
+blowing, and with the same attendant crowd of soldiers, priests,
+nobles, and peasants. Once upon a time the people really believed in the
+ceremony, and what it was supposed to tell them. Even now many thousands
+of them have great faith in the acts that have been performed; but as
+education spreads, the belief in these quaint and picturesque ceremonies
+will die out. It will, however, be long before they are entirely given
+up, for they provide opportunities for a merry holiday; and if there is
+one thing a Siamese loves more than another, it is a day of feasting and
+merriment, a day when work is thought of as something belonging only to
+the morrow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+ELEPHANTS
+
+
+The chief animal of Siam is the elephant. Elephants are found in great
+numbers in the north, and also in the wide plains of the south, where
+these plains are not cultivated, but are covered with jungle-grass,
+brushwood, and bamboo. The Siamese elephant sometimes attains a height
+of ten or eleven feet. Frequent measurements have proved the curious
+fact that the height of an elephant is usually about twice the
+circumference of its biggest foot.
+
+The driver of the elephant is called a _mahout_. When the _mahout_
+wishes to mount the beast, the elephant bends his right fore-leg to form
+a step. As soon as the _mahout_ puts his foot on the step, the elephant
+gives a jerk, and up goes the man on to his back. The driver sits
+astride on the neck, for the elephant carries his head so steadily that
+there is less motion there than in any other part of the body. The
+driver is armed with a stick, at the end of which is a sharp-pointed
+iron hook. When the elephant misbehaves himself he gets many a cruel
+blow with the vicious weapon.
+
+The elephants are mostly used for work in the teak-forests. The males,
+or tuskers, when well trained, are worth from £100 to £200 each. The
+females are not usually employed in this work, and no elephants at all
+are worked in hot weather between ten in the morning and three in the
+afternoon. An elephant begins to work when it is about twenty-five years
+of age, and is at its best at about seventy. At that age it can lift
+with its tusks a log of wood weighing half a ton, and drag along the
+ground a log weighing as much as three tons. Elephants are very
+long-lived, sometimes living 150 years or more.
+
+In the forest the trees are felled by men who use heavy, long-handled
+axes. This work is done in the wet season, so that the trees fall in
+soft ground and do not get seriously damaged. The logs are arranged in
+parallel rows by the elephants, and then each elephant is harnessed to a
+log, which he proceeds to drag towards the stream. Young stems are
+placed under the big logs to serve as rollers. The distance from the
+forest to the river is often as much as ten miles, and is rarely less
+than five miles. The elephants move very slowly--at a pace averaging
+less than three miles an hour--and the process of taking the logs to the
+river is therefore slow and tedious. When the elephant reaches the
+river-bank he stacks the logs for the inspection of the men who come to
+buy. They are marked in such a way that each merchant can, later on,
+easily recognize his own property; then the elephants take them one by
+one, and put them in the creek or river. They push them over boulders
+and sandbanks, remove fallen trees out of the way, and, finally, bring
+them where there is a good current, and they can be bound into rafts and
+floated south.
+
+When the logs arrive at the saw-mills other elephants land them, and so
+well do they understand their work that they rarely need the direction
+of the _mahout_; they are so intelligent that when they hear the
+dinner-bell sound for the workmen, they instantly drop their logs and
+scamper off, screaming with joy, just like a lot of children let out of
+school.
+
+They are up to all kinds of tricks. For instance, at night they are
+turned loose to feed. A heavy, trailing chain is attached to them, and
+as they move about, the chain drags on the ground and leaves a trail, by
+means of which they are traced in the morning. But an elephant which has
+made up its mind to run away has been known "to carefully gather up the
+tell-tale chain and carry it for miles on its tusks." Again, each
+elephant has a bell, and the driver recognizes the whereabouts of his
+own elephant, even when afar off, by the sound of this bell. But some
+elephants will remove the bell with their trunk, and then run away and
+hide themselves. They frequently jerk a _mahout_ whom they do not like
+on to the ground and trample on him.
+
+They can be used to make their lazy brothers work. In such cases a good
+big tusker is employed. He digs his tusks into the side of the idle one,
+and forces him to take up his log. Sometimes the beasts fight amongst
+themselves, and then they seem to aim chiefly at biting off one
+another's tails.
+
+They have to be humoured at their work or they turn sulky. They work
+three days and rest three days. If they get ill, pills made of fiery
+chillies are rubbed into the eyes. This is probably the only animal that
+takes pills with its eyes. The animals get at least one bath a day. They
+will not drag one log for a long distance; but having brought it, say,
+for three-quarters of a mile, they go back and fetch another. When they
+have collected a little pile all in the same place, they set off again,
+carrying each of the logs about another three-quarters of a mile, and
+returning for the rest. They never cross a bridge without first testing
+it with one foot to see if they think that it is safe. They are afraid
+of ponies, and by Siamese law, a pony meeting an elephant has to get out
+of the way.
+
+Once or twice a year there is a big elephant-hunt at Ayuthia, the old
+capital. At the beginning of the wet season orders are sent forth that
+elephants are to be collected. A number of men traverse the plain where
+the elephants have been allowed to roam unmolested, and drive them in
+towards the town.
+
+[Illustration: AN ELEPHANT HUNT AT AYUTHIA. _Page 72._]
+
+People of all classes go to Ayuthia to see the fun--Princes and
+peasants, Europeans and Asiatics, laymen and priests. There is a great
+deal of excitement, particularly when the elephants are expected.
+Presently an enormous tusker is seen. This is a tame elephant. He walks
+slowly in front, and the crowd of wild elephants behind who have taken
+him for their leader follow like a flock of sheep, except that they make
+more noise. Round the outside of the herd there are other tame
+elephants, carrying men on their backs who are armed with spears. At
+last they reach the river. They stop for a moment, but the big tusker
+marches on in front, and the others are pushing at the back, so into the
+water they all go. They swim to the other side of the river, and there
+the mounted elephants get the whole herd into line again, pretending all
+the while to be their friends. Then the tusker marches into a big
+enclosure set round with posts, and thence through a gateway into a
+second enclosure. By this time some of the wild elephants have an idea
+that they are being trapped, and they try to go back; but the
+guard-elephants stand quite steady, and the men on their backs make good
+use of their spears. So at last the captives are brought into a square
+space surrounded by a high, thick wall, on which hundreds of spectators
+are crowded, watching the operations. This ends the first day.
+
+The next morning half a dozen tuskers are led into the enclosure, or
+_paneat_, as it is called. On the back of each elephant are two men,
+provided with long coils of rope. They look for those young elephants
+that they think can be trained to make strong and useful servants later
+on. Having chosen one, they chase him about, and, after a time, succeed
+in getting a noose under his foot, and in pulling the noose tightly up
+above the knee. The other end of the coil is thrown to the men upon the
+ground, and they make it fast to a post. When the youngster tries to run
+about again, he finds that he is held tightly by one leg. He shows his
+displeasure by the most heart-rending howls. As soon as a certain number
+have been tied up to posts, a gate is opened in the enclosure, and the
+uncaptured beasts are allowed to rush out on to the plain beyond. But
+they are not permitted to go back to their homes in the jungle; a ring
+of mounted elephants surrounds the plain and keeps them within bounds.
+
+The young ones in the _paneat_ are led out, one at a time, through a
+narrow gate. A tame elephant leads the way, and another follows. Once
+outside, three mounted elephants appear. One goes on each side of the
+captive, and the third follows behind. The captive is fastened by his
+neck to the necks of his brethren on either side, and in this
+humiliating way he is led to the stables. There he is tied by the neck
+and one leg to a post. After about three years he has lost his temper,
+become gentle, and can then be taught to work.
+
+Other elephants are noosed in the open, but in the evening, after a
+bathe in the river, the herd goes back to the _paneat_. When as many
+elephants have been chosen as are wanted, the rest are set free, and
+allowed to wander at liberty for another twelve months.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+WHITE ELEPHANTS
+
+
+Siam has been called the "Land of the White Elephant," and no account of
+the country would be complete which failed to take notice of these
+peculiar animals. The national flag is a white elephant on a scarlet
+ground; the mercantile flag is a white elephant on a blue ground; and on
+every temple and official building this wonderful creature is fashioned
+in stone, wood, and plaster.
+
+In former days the King did not feel himself fully a king unless he
+possessed a white elephant, and he never hesitated about undertaking a
+war in order to obtain one of these rare animals. There is a story that
+Gautama was once a white elephant, and that his mother, in a dream, met
+him in heaven in that shape. Another legend says that now and again in
+the world's history a monarch appears who conquers and rules every
+nation under the sun. This monarch is known by certain signs, and by the
+possession of certain objects. Of seven particular things that he owns,
+a white elephant is one, and without a white elephant he could not
+become king of the world. Then many of the Siamese believe that the
+animal is inhabited by the soul of some great man of the past, or by
+that of someone yet unborn, who will in due time be a person of great
+distinction.
+
+In former years no subject was allowed to keep a white elephant. If by
+chance he found one, he hastened to present it to the King. If he dared
+to try to keep it for himself, the King made war upon him and took it
+away by force.
+
+Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as a white elephant. The
+animal is not really white, but only a little lighter in colour than the
+ordinary elephant. Occasionally it is of the colour of dirty bath brick,
+and it may have a few white hairs on its tail or its head.
+
+The news of the discovery of a white elephant always produced great joy
+in the people and the King. The King sent a body of nobles and princes
+to the place where the animal had been found, and where he was tethered
+by silken cords. The ambassadors guarded the quadruped while
+professional elephant-tamers taught it how to behave in the presence of
+men and in the streets of a town. People went from all parts of the
+country to visit it and take it presents.
+
+Meanwhile, in the capital, a palace was rapidly erected for the sublime
+animal. When the palace was finished and the taming of the elephant
+completed, a stately procession set out to meet it and bring it home.
+The King headed the procession, and when he met the elephant he knelt
+before it and gave it presents, after which he turned round and led the
+way back to the capital. In the elephant's new residence there was a
+wardrobe for his clothes, and covers of velvet and silk embroidered with
+gold and jewels. On his head was fastened a gold plate bearing his name
+and titles. He had a troupe of slaves and a party of priests, an
+orchestra of musicians, and a number of dancing-girls, all specially set
+apart for his instruction and amusement. When the elephant wanted to
+sleep, the priests chanted slumber-songs; when he looked lively and
+wakeful, the dancing-girls sang and danced to him. When he was hungry,
+he was fed with the finest fruits and vegetables. As a rule this life of
+laziness and luxury soon brought about his death.
+
+Only about thirty years ago, a party of hunters who were looking for
+white elephants saw in the distance an elephant of excellent shape and
+size, but of no particular colour. On examining it a little closer, they
+fancied that it might be one of that rare kind for which they were
+seeking. They took him away and washed the mud off him, and them to
+their intense joy, they found that not only was he light in colour, but
+that on his back there were a few hairs that were positively white. The
+country went wild with joy. Bangkok was decorated with flags, and
+illuminated at night. All the place was gay with banners, lights, and
+music. The King went to meet the animal, and the priests read a long and
+flattering address to it.
+
+The priests then baptized the animal and gave him his new name and
+titles, which were very numerous, and which were written on a piece of
+sugar-cane; this the elephant promptly swallowed. It was probably the
+only part of the ceremony that gave him any pleasure. He was taken to
+his new apartment, and there fed by kneeling servants, who offered him
+food on dishes made of silver.
+
+Things are much changed now. When the last white elephant was
+discovered, he was sent to Bangkok on a railway-truck. There was no
+guard of honour, no procession, and the King only went to visit him when
+he was lodged in the stables. On the way to the palace the new-comer
+behaved himself very badly by walking up to a fruit-seller's stall--the
+first it had ever seen--and eating up everything that was on it, almost
+before the attendants had had time to notice what he was doing.
+Nowadays, the white elephants are badly fed by miserable grooms. They no
+longer have either priests or dancing-girls. The walls of their stables
+are half in ruins, and the roofs are covered with dirt of great age and
+thickness. Their food is only hay, leaves, and young bamboos. By the
+side of each elephant is a cage; this is intended for a white monkey,
+the fit and proper companion for the white elephant. But as white
+monkeys are more rare than white elephants, all these cages are empty.
+
+Once a year each elephant is sprinkled with holy water by the priests,
+and is made to listen to a number of long prayers. This is done to keep
+away evil spirits, and so successful is the operation that it only needs
+repeating once in twelve months. When one of the elephants dies, they
+bring a white monkey, a few doctors, and a few priests, to visit the
+deceased. By his side they dig a hole in the ground, in which incense is
+burned. The body is covered with a white cloth, and then taken out of
+the town and left to rot in a field. Later on the bones and tusks are
+collected and preserved. For three days after the death of the quadruped
+a number of priests remain praying in the stable, requesting the spirit
+of the animal not to come back again and do any damage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+TRIAL BY ORDEAL
+
+
+It is a long time since anyone in England had to undergo "trial by
+ordeal," but amongst the Early English it was no uncommon thing for a
+man to try and prove his innocence when charged with crime by plunging
+his hand into boiling water or by holding a red-hot piece of iron. This
+was done in the church and before the priest. After a certain number of
+days the wound was examined. If it had healed, the accused was innocent;
+if it had not healed, he was guilty.
+
+Trial by ordeal in Siamese law-courts lasted down to quite recent times,
+and even now ordeals are practised privately for various purposes.
+
+In one of the fire ordeals the accuser and the accused had to walk with
+bare feet over a layer of live coals ten inches thick. The fire was made
+in a ditch, ten feet long by twenty inches wide and twenty inches deep.
+As the competitors walked over the red-hot coals, an official pressed
+heavily on their shoulders to make them go slowly. At the end of the
+trial the feet of the men were examined, and he who had no blisters,
+either then or during the next fifteen days, won the case. If both were
+unhurt, they had to undergo another ordeal by water; if both were burnt,
+they were both fined. Only about forty years ago a trial of this kind
+occurred at a law-court in one of the smaller towns of the interior.
+
+In the ordeal by diving, use was made of a pond or of the river itself.
+Two stakes were fixed about ten feet away from each other. The parties
+first said their prayers, and then entered the water with safety-ropes
+fastened round their waists. They walked into the water until it reached
+to their necks. Each laid hold of his stake, and then a long pole was
+placed so that it was supported by the shoulders of both competitors. A
+signal was given on a gong, and an official leant heavily on the pole
+and pushed the heads of the parties under the water. He who remained
+under the water the longer of the two was the winner. If both remained
+under water longer than a fixed time, they were hauled up by the
+safety-ropes and the case was dismissed. If the people who had
+quarrelled were rich, they could employ people to dive for them, instead
+of getting wet and breathless themselves; and there is a story told of a
+man who once engaged a pearl-diver to represent him, and so won easily.
+A trial of this kind occurred at the northern town of Chiengmai as late
+as January, 1882.
+
+[Illustration: A RELIGIOUS WATER PROCESSION.]
+
+Phya Tak, the man whom we spoke about in the first chapter of this book,
+once defeated the army of a rebel who was also a priest. When the rebel
+was captured, a large number of yellow-robed brethren were taken with
+him. The King called them all together, and as he could not tell the
+innocent from the guilty, he said to them: "Those of you who confess
+your guilt must leave the priesthood, but I will give you other clothes,
+and set you free without punishment. Those who say they are innocent
+must prove their innocence by the diving-test. If you fail in this
+test, you will be executed."
+
+Many priests confessed at once that they had been helping the rebel
+host. They were released as the King had promised. But many others swore
+that they were innocent. The King sat on a chair on the river-bank and
+watched the priests go down into the water one by one. Some of them
+stayed under the water the proper length of time, and so proved
+themselves not guilty; but others who failed were stripped of their
+robes and executed on the spot. Their bodies were burnt; their ashes
+were mixed with lime, and used to whitewash a part of a temple
+structure.
+
+Sometimes melted lead was used in trial by ordeal. The contending
+parties thrust their hands into molten lead, and he who was not burnt
+won the case. Molten tin or boiling oil were used occasionally instead
+of the molten lead.
+
+A regular method of settling disputes about money that had been lent was
+the trial by swimming. The parties had to swim either across a stream or
+against the current for a certain distance. The loser had to pay double
+the sum in dispute. Half the amount paid was given to the winner, while
+the other half was handed over to the Government as a fine.
+
+Trial by means of candles was more comfortable than trial by fire and
+water. Two candles of exactly the same kind of wax, of the same weight,
+and with wicks containing the same number of threads, were lit and
+placed on suitable stands. The man whose candle burnt away first was the
+loser. It is related of a certain nobleman that he was once asked to
+seize the throne and get rid of a usurper who was reigning at the time.
+He took two candles, one for himself and one for the usurper, and
+watched them burn. His own candle won. Taking this to mean that he would
+be successful, he raised an army, attacked the sovereign, defeated him,
+and reigned in his stead.
+
+Then there were trials connected with eating and drinking. One of these
+consisted in drinking water in which a sacred image had been bathed. If
+any misfortune happened to the person within a fortnight after the day
+he took the water he was declared guilty. In other cases rice was eaten;
+this was given by the priest, and was mixed with drugs and other nasty
+things. If the accused person was made sick by the dose, that proved him
+to be guilty. This form of trial was practised until quite recently for
+the detection of various small offences. A similar form of ordeal
+existed in England as late as the middle of the thirteenth century. A
+morsel of bread and cheese had to be eaten. It did no harm if the person
+were innocent, but gave him convulsions if he were guilty.
+
+Tree-climbing was also indulged in for the discovery of culprits. For
+this purpose a particular kind of tree was stripped of its bark, leaving
+a very slippery stem underneath. A man could prove his innocence of the
+charge brought against him by successfully "climbing the greasy pole."
+
+Before any of the diving-trials that we have mentioned take place, the
+recorder reads out a long address to the "gods of all mountains,
+streams, lakes, and creeks," for which he is paid about five shillings.
+There is a similar address and a similar fee before any one of any of
+the trials by fire. In this latter address the deities are asked to take
+vengeance on the guilty. Amongst other pleasant things that the recorder
+reads are the following words:
+
+"May the deities cause all the sinful, ferocious beasts who molest man
+on this earth to arise and appear before the eyes of him who has said
+what is false, making him shake and shiver with fright; may his skin
+blister and his hair bristle on his head; may the terror of the
+approaching danger appear on his countenance, and his limbs tremble as
+he sees the glare of the brisk flames!
+
+"O God of Fire, so gloriously shining and mighty! scorch and blister him
+as he enters the flames!
+
+"O God of Fire, radiant and mighty in these accumulated embers, scald,
+blister, burn him, so that his guilt may appear evident before every
+eye!"
+
+
+THE END
+
+
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+RED CAP ADVENTURES
+
+Being the Second Series of Red Cap Tales Stolen from the Treasure-Chest
+of the Wizard of the North
+
+16 full-page Illustrations by ALLAN STEWART and others
+
+
+By S. R. CROCKETT
+
+RED CAP TALES
+
++Stolen from the Treasure-Chest of the Wizard of the North+
+
+16 full-page Illustrations in Colour by SIMON HARMON VEDDER
+
+
+Translated and Abridged by DOMINICK DALY
+
+THE ADVENTURES OF DON QUIXOTE
+
+12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by STEPHEN BAGHOT DE LA BERE
+
+
+GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
+
+16 full-page Illustrations in Colour by STEPHEN BAGHOT DE LA BERE
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+
+By ASCOTT R. HOPE
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+THE ADVENTURES OF PUNCH
+
+12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by STEPHEN BAGHOT DE LA BERE
+
+
+By P. G. WODEHOUSE
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+WILLIAM TELL TOLD AGAIN
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+THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS
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+
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+
+16 full-page Illustrations in Colour from Public and Private Galleries
+
+
+By G. E. MITTON
+
+THE CHILDREN'S BOOK OF STARS
+
+Preface by Sir DAVID GILL, K.C.B., with 16 full-page Illustrations (11
+in Colour) and 8 smaller figures in the text
+
+
+By G. E. MITTON
+
+THE CHILDREN'S BOOK OF LONDON
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+
+
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+
+THE CHILDREN'S BOOK OF CELTIC STORIES
+
+12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by ALLAN STEWART
+
+
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+
+
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+
+
+Edited by G. E. MITTON
+
+SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON
+
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+
+
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+
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+
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+
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+
+ANIMAL AUTOBIOGRAPHIES
+
+EDITED BY G. E. MITTON
+
+Each volume deals entirely with the life-story of some one animal, and
+is not merely a collection of animal stories. It is necessary to
+emphasize this, as the idea of the series has sometimes been
+misunderstood. Children who have outgrown fairy-tales undoubtedly prefer
+this form of story to any other, and a more wholesome way of stimulating
+their interest in the living things around them could hardly be found.
+
+Though the books are designed for children of all ages, many adults have
+been attracted by their freshness, and have found in them much that they
+did not know before.
+
+The autobiographical form was chosen after careful consideration in
+preference to the newer method of regarding an animal through the eyes
+of a human being, because it is the first aim of the series to depict
+the world as animals see it, and it is not possible to do this
+realistically unless the animal himself tells the story.
+
+
+THE LIFE STORY OF
+
+A BLACK BEAR
+
+By H. PERRY ROBINSON
+
+With 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by J. VAN OORT
+
+
+THE LIFE STORY OF
+
+A CAT
+
+By VIOLET HUNT
+
+With 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by ADOLPH BIRKENRUTH
+
+
+THE LIFE STORY OF
+
+A DOG
+
+By G. E. MITTON
+
+With 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by JOHN WILLIAMSON
+
+
+THE LIFE STORY OF
+
+A FOX
+
+By J. C. TREGARTHEN
+
+With 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by COUNTESS HELENA GLEICHEN
+
+
+THE LIFE STORY OF
+
+A FOWL
+
+By J. W. HURST
+
+With 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by ALLAN STEWART and MAUDE
+SCRIVENER
+
+
+THE LIFE STORY OF
+
+A RAT
+
+By G. M. A. HEWETT
+
+With 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by STEPHEN BAGHOT DE LA BERE
+
+
+THE LIFE STORY OF
+
+A SQUIRREL
+
+By T. C. BRIDGES
+
+With 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by ALLAN STEWART
+
+
++TANGERINE+:
+A CHILD'S LETTERS FROM MOROCCO.
+EDITED BY T. ERNEST WALTHAM · CONTAINING
+ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS · SQUARE DEMY
+OCTAVO · CLOTH · PRICE +3s. 6d.+
+
+
+"TANGERINE," AS THE NAME IMPLIES, DEALS WITH TANGIER, BUT NOT IN AN
+HISTORICAL SENSE ONLY, BECAUSE THE PRETTY TITLE IS THE NAME GIVEN TO THE
+LITTLE HEROINE WHO DESCRIBES, WITH OPEN EYES OF AMAZEMENT, ALL THE FUNNY
+THINGS AND PEOPLE SHE MEETS WITH WHILE LIVING IN THAT STRANGE MOORISH
+COUNTRY.
+
+HER LETTERS, AND THE MANY BEAUTIFUL AND UNIQUE PHOTOGRAPHS WHICH
+ILLUSTRATE THEM, CARRY ONE BACK TO THE OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY TIMES, AND
+IF THE ILLUSTRATIONS HAD NOT BEEN FROM ACTUAL PHOTOGRAPHS, IT WOULD HAVE
+BEEN VERY DIFFICULT TO HAVE BELIEVED THAT THE OLD, OLD CUSTOMS COULD BE
+SEEN TO-DAY SO NEAR TO OUR OWN COUNTRY AND UNMIXED WITH MODERN
+CIVILIZATION.
+
+THE BOOK WILL ESPECIALLY INTEREST THE YOUNG, BECAUSE CHILDREN LOVE TO
+HAVE INCIDENTS OF REAL LIFE PUT BEFORE THEM WHEN THEY HAVE BEEN SEEN
+THROUGH THE EYES OF ANOTHER CHILD; BESIDES, TANGERINE'S LETTERS ARE FULL
+OF QUAINT DOINGS AND LITTLE ADVENTURES WHICH MUST APPEAL TO THEM.
+
+
+[Illustration: Decoration]
+
+ANIMAL AUTOBIOGRAPHIES
+
+EDITED BY
+
+G. E. MITTON
+
+EACH CONTAINING 12 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+SQUARE CROWN 8vo., CLOTH, GILT TOP
+
+PRICE +6/=+ EACH
+
+
+THE LIFE STORY OF
+
+A BLACK BEAR
+
+BY H. PERRY ROBINSON
+
+With 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by J. VAN OORT
+
+
+THE LIFE STORY OF
+
+A CAT
+
+BY VIOLET HUNT
+
+With 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by ADOLPH BIRKENRUTH
+
+
+THE LIFE STORY OF
+
+A DOG
+
+BY G. E. MITTON
+
+With 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by JOHN WILLIAMSON
+
+
+THE LIFE STORY OF
+
+A FOWL
+
+BY J. W. HURST
+
+With 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour
+
+
+THE LIFE STORY OF
+
+A FOX
+
+BY J. C. TREGARTHEN
+
+With 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by COUNTESS HELENA GLEICHEN
+
+
+THE LIFE STORY OF
+
+A RAT
+
+BY G. M. A. HEWETT
+
+With 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by STEPHEN BAGHOT DE LA BERE
+
+
+THE LIFE STORY OF
+
+A SQUIRREL
+
+BY T. C. BRIDGES
+
+With 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by ALLAN STEWART
+
+     The _Observer_ says: "That a great many children, and their elders,
+     too, take a continuous interest in the life-stories of animals has
+     been proved again and again, and therefore the idea of this series
+     is one which is sure to commend itself to a large circle of
+     readers. These volumes show that the happy idea has been very
+     happily carried out."
+
+
++SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON.+ EDITED BY G. E.
+MITTON · CONTAINING TWELVE FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
+IN COLOUR BY HARRY ROUNTREE.
+LARGE SQUARE CROWN OCTAVO CLOTH · GILT TOP · PRICE +6s.+
+
+THERE'S NO FRIEND LIKE AN OLD FRIEND, AND, AMONG ALL SCHOOLROOM
+CLASSICS, "SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON" IS ONE OF THE OLDEST AND BEST KNOWN.
+THE PRESENT VERSION IS TAKEN FROM ONE OF THE EARLIEST OF THE ENGLISH
+EDITIONS, AND THOUGH A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF UNNECESSARY MATTER HAS BEEN CUT
+OFF TO REDUCE IT WITHIN REASONABLE LIMITS, THE SLIGHTLY ARCHAIC FLAVOUR
+OF THE LANGUAGE HAS BEEN RETAINED.
+
+HARRY ROUNTREE'S ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR ARE REALLY EXCELLENT, AND MAKE
+ONE WISH IT HAD BEEN ONE'S OWN PRIVILEGE TO MEET THE BOOK FOR THE FIRST
+TIME IN THIS GUISE.
+
+
+THE CHILDREN'S BOOK OF EDINBURGH
+
+BY ELIZABETH W. GRIERSON
+
+Containing 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour from Paintings by ALLAN
+STEWART
+
+_Large Square Crown 8vo., Cloth, Gilt Top. Price_ +6s.+
+
+"There have been many books written about Edinburgh, but none which
+attempts to point out its attractions or explain its historical
+associations in the way this one does for the benefit of young people.
+The author comes down to the level of little folks; yet the style in
+which she writes will not repel older people.... The volume is one which
+is certain to prove popular with little folk."--_Scotsman._
+
+
+THE CHILDREN'S BOOK OF LONDON
+
+BY G. E. MITTON
+
+Author of several volumes in "The Fascination of London" Series edited
+by SIR WALTER BESANT
+
+Containing 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour by JOHN WILLIAMSON
+
+_Large Square Crown 8vo., Cloth, Gilt Top. Price_ +6s.+
+
+"No better guide could our younger generation have. The book has been
+written so dexterously that a child of ten years of age will at once be
+attracted and be impatient to go on a voyage of discovery in that London
+of which it knows little or nothing beyond the fact that it is a very,
+very, big city. 'Pen Pictures of London' the book might be called, and
+it will assuredly be in great demand at Christmas-time."--_Morning
+Post._
+
+
+THE CHILDREN'S BOOK OF STARS
+
+BY G. E. MITTON
+
+Author of "The Children's Book of London"
+
+With a Preface by SIR DAVID GILL, K.C.B.
+
+Containing about 20 full-page Illustrations (11 in Colour) and numerous
+Diagrams in the Text
+
+_Large Square Crown 8vo., Cloth, Gilt Top. Price_ +6s.+
+
+"This book about stars stirs one to something like enthusiasm, because
+it is so obviously and so delightfully a book that ought to have been
+written, and a book that has been well and lovingly
+written."--_Tribune._
+
+
+CHILDREN'S TALES FROM SCOTTISH BALLADS
+
+BY ELIZABETH W. GRIERSON
+
+Containing 12 full-page Illustrations in Colour from Paintings by ALLAN
+STEWART
+
+_Large Square Crown 8vo., Cloth, Gilt Top. Price_ +6s.+
+
+"The author has singled out her stories well. _Black Agnace of Dunbar_
+is a stirring piece of writing, and if it and the other stories do not
+fire the imagination of the rising generation, then we have surely
+become a decadent race.... The illustrations are again by Mr. Stewart,
+whose colouring is beautiful."--_Speaker._
+
+
+PUBLISHED BY A. AND C. BLACK, 4, 5, AND 6, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Siam, by Ernest Young
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57253 ***