favour of those that love to reason on Philosophical matters The Siameses do not give many forms to their Lands The time of ploughing and reaping They till them and sowe them when the Rains have sufficiently softened them and they gather their harvest when the waters are retired and sometimes when they are yet remaining on the ground and they can go only by Boat All the land that is overflowed is good for Rice and 't is said that the Ear always surmounts the waters and that if they encrease a foot in twenty four hours the Rice grows a foot also in twenty four hours but though it be averr'd that this happens sometimes I cannot without much difficulty believe it in so vast an Inundation And I rather conceive that when the Inundation surmounts the Rice at any time it rots it They gather Rice also in divers Cantons of the Kingdom which the Rains do not overflow and this is more substantial better relisht and keeps longer Another sort of Rice When it has grown long enough in the Land where it was sown it is transplanted into another which is prepared after this manner They overflow it as we do the Salt Marshes until it be throughly soft and for this purpose it is necessary to have high Cisterns or rather to keep the Rain-water in the Field it self by little Banks made all round Then they let the water go to feed the Land level it and in fine transplant the Rice-Roots one after the other by thrusting them in with the Thumb I am greatly inclin'd to believe The original of Agriculture with the Siameses that the Ancient Siameses lived only upon Fruits and Fish as still do several people of the Coasts of Africk and that in process of time Husbandry has been taught them by the Chineses We read in the History of China that 't was anciently the King himself that annually first set his hand to the Plough in this great Kingdom and that of the Crop which his Labour yielded him he made the Bread for the Sacrifices The Lawful King of Tonquin and Cochinchina together who is called the Buado's likewise observe this Custom of first breaking up the Lands every year and of all the Royal Functions this is almost the only one remaining to him The most important are exercised by two Hereditary Governors the one of Tonquin and the other of Cochinchina who wage war and who are the true Soveraigns although they profess to acknowledge the Bua which is at Tonquin for their Soveraign The Ceremony of the Siameses touching Agriculture The King of Siam did formerly also set his hand to the Plough on a certain day of the year For about an Age since and upon some superstitious Observation of a bad Omen he labours no more but leaves this Ceremony to an imaginary King which is purposely created every year yet they will not permit him to bear the Title of King but that of Oc-ya-Kaou or Oc-ya of the Rice He is mounted upon an Ox and rides to the place where he must plough attended with a great train of Officers that are obedient to him This Masquerade for one day gets him wherewithal to live on the whole year And by the same superstition has deterred the Kings themselves It is look'd upon as ominous and unlucky to the person I suspect therefore that this custom of causing the lands to be ploughed by the Prince came from China to Tonquin and Siam with the Art of Husbandry It is Politick and Superstitious both together It may perhaps have been invented only to gain credit to Husbandry by the example of Kings themselves but it is intermixt with a great many superstitions to supplicate the good and evil Spirits whom they think able to help or hurt the goods of the Earth Amongst other things the Oc-ya-Kaou offers them a Sacrifice in the open field of an heap of Rice-sheaves whereunto he sets fire with his own hand CHAP. IX Of the Gardens of the Siameses and occasionally of their Liquors Their Pulse and Roots The Potatoe THE Siameses are not less addicted to the manuring of Gardens than to the ploughing of Arable Lands They have Pulse and Roots but for the most part different from ours Amongst the Roots the Potatoe deserves a parcular mention It is of the form and size almost of a Parsenep and the inside thereof is sometimes white sometimes red sometimes purple but I never saw any but the first sort Being roasted under the Ashes it eats like the Chesnut The Isles of America made it known to us it there frequently supplies as some report the place of Bread At Siam I have seen Chibbols and no Onions Garlick Turneps Cucumbers Citruls Water-melons Parsley Bawm Sorrel They have no true Melons nor Strawberries nor Raspberries nor Artichoaks but a great deal of Asparagus of which they do not eat They have neither Sallory nor Beets nor Coleworts nor Coleflore nor Turneps nor Parseneps nor Carrots nor Leeks nor Lettuce nor Chervil nor most of the Herbs whereof we compose our Sallads Yet the Dutch have most of all these Plants at Batavia which is a sign that the Soil of Siam would be proper thereunto It bears large Mushromes but few and ill tasted It yields no Truffles not so much as that insipid and scentless kind which the Spaniards do call Criadillas de tierra and which they put into their pot Cucumbers Chibbols Garlick Radishes The Siameses do eat Cucumbers raw as they do throughout the East and also in Spain and it is not impossible but their Cucumbers may be more wholsom than ours seeing that Vinegar doth not harden them They look upon them and call them a kind of Water-Melons Mr. Vincent inform'd me that a Persian will eat 36 pound weight of Melons or Cucumbers at the beginning of the season of these Fruits to purge himself The Chibbols Garlick and Radishes have a sweeter taste at Siam than in this Country These sort of Plants do lose their Rankness by the great Heat And I easily believe what those who have experienc'd it have assured me that nothing is more pleasant than the Onions of Aegypt which the Israelites so exceedingly regretted Flowers I have seen a great many Tuberoses in the Gardens of Siam and no Roses nor Gillyflowers but it is said there are plenty of Gillyflowers and few Roses and that these Flowers have less scent here than in Europe so that the Roses have hardly any The Jasmine is likewise so rare that 't is said there are none but at the King's House We were presented with two or three Flowers as a wonder They have a great many Amaranthus and Tricolors Except these most of the Flowers and Plants which adorn our Gardens are unknown to them But in their stead they have others which are peculiar to them and which are very agreeable for their Beauty and Odor I have remark'd of some that they smell only in the Night by
die about the Temple and they eat them only when they die of themselves Near certain Temples there is also a Pond for the living Fish which is offer'd to the Temple and besides these Festival days common to all the Temples The People love to adorn themselves to go to the Temples and their Charity to Animals every Temple has a particular one appointed to receive the Alms as if it was the Feast of its Dedication for I could not learn what it is The People voluntarily assist at these Festivals and make a show with their new Cloaths One of their greatest Charities is to give Liberty to some Animals which they buy of those that have taken them in the Fields What they give to the Idol they offer not immediately to the Idol but to the Talapoins and they present it to the Idol either by holding it in their hand before the Idol or by laying it upon the Altar and in a little time after they take it away and convert it to their own uses Sometimes the People offer up lighted Tapers which the Talapoins do fasten to the knees of the Statue and this is the reason why one of the knees of a great many Idols is ungilt As for bloody Sacrifices they never offer up any on the contrary they are prohibited from killing any thing At the Full Moon of the fifth Month The Siameses do wash their Idols their Talapoins and their Parents the Talapoins do wash the Idol with perfumed waters but respect permits them not to wash its head They afterwards wash the Sancrat And the People go also to wash the Sancrats and the other Talapoins And then in particular Families the Children do wash their Parents without having regard to the Sex for the Son and the Daughter do equally wash the Father and the Mother the Grandfather and the Grandmother This Custom is observed also in the Country of Laos with this Singularity that the King himself is washed in the River The Talapoins have no Clock The hour on which the Talapoins do wash themselves and they wash themselves only when it is light enough to be able to discern the veins of their hands for fear lest if they should wash themselves earlier in the morning they should in walking kill any Insect without perceiving it This is the reason why they wash later in the shortest days tho' their Bell fails not to wake them before day Being raised they go with their Superior to the Temple for two hours They go to the Temples in the morning There they sing or repeat out of the Balie and what they sing is written on the Leass of a Tree somewhat longish and fasten'd at one of the ends as I have said in discoursing of the Tree which bears them The People have not any Prayer-Book The posture of the Talapoins whilst they sing is to sit cross-leg'd and continually to toss their Talipat or Fan as if they would continually fan themselves so that their Fan goes or comes at each Syllable which they pronounce and they pronounce them all at equal times and after the same tone In entering in and going out of the Temple they prostrate themselves three times before the Statue and the Seculars do observe the same but the one and the other do remain in the Temple sitting cross-leg'd and not always prostrate In going from Prayer the Talapoins go into the City to beg Alms for an hour Then to begging on which alone they do not always live but they never go out of the Convent and never re-enter without going to salute their Superior before whom they prostrated themselves to touch the ground with their Forehead and because that the Superior sits generally cross-leg'd they take one of his Feet with both their hands and put it on their head To crave Alms they stand at the Gates without saying any thing and they pass on after a little time if nothing is given them It is rare that the People sends them away without giving them and besides this their Parents never fail them The Convents have likewise some Gardens and cultivated Lands and Slaves to plough them All their Lands are free from Taxes and the Prince touches them not altho' he has the real property thereof if he divests not himself by writing which he almost never does At their return from begging the Talapoins do breakfast if they will How they fill up the day and are not always regular in presenting to the Idol what they eat tho' they do it sometimes after the manner that I have related Till Dinner-time they study or employ themselves as to them seems meet and at Noon they dine After Dinner they read a Lecture to the little Talapoins and sleep and at the declining of the day they sweep the Temple and do there sing as in the morning for two hours after which they lie down If they eat in the evening it is only Fruit and tho' their day's work seems full by what I have said they cease not to walk in the City after Dinner for their pleasure Besides the Slaves which the Convents may have The secular Servants of the Talapoins they have each one or two Servants which they call Tapacaou and which are really Seculars tho' they be habited like the Talapoins excepting that their Habit is white and not yellow They receive the money which is given to the Talapoins because the Talapoins cannot touch it without sinning they have the care of the Gardens and Lands which the Convent may have and in a word they act in the Convents for the Talapoins whatever the Talapoins conceive cannot be done by themselves as we shall see in the Sequel CHAP. XVIII Of the Election of the Superior and of the Reception of the Talapoins and Talapoinesses The Election of the Superior WHen the Superior is dead be he Sancrat or not the Convent elects another and ordinarily it chuses the oldest Talapoin of the House or at least the most learned How a Secular does who builds a Temple and begins a Convent How a Talapoin is admitted If a particular person builds a Temple he agrees with some old Talapoin at his own choice to be the Superior of the Convent which is built round this Temple as other Talapoins come thither to inhabit for he builds no Talapoins Lodging before-hand If any one would make himself a Talapoin he begins with agreeing with some Superior that would receive him into his Convent and because there is none but a Sancrat as I have said can give him the Habit he goes to demand it of some Sancrat if the Superior with whom he would remain is not himself a Sancrat and the Sancrat appoints him an hour some few days after and for the Afternoon Whoever should oppose him would sin and as this Profession is gainful and it lasts not necessarily the whole life the Parents are always very glad to see their Children
are the cold Winds of this Country The Hollanders which are setled there do say that if the South-west Wind blows not during their Summer which is our Winter the Distempers of the Lungs are frequent and dangerous The short stay that I made permitted me not througly to instruct my self concerning the Manners of the Hotantots the natural Inhabitants of the Cape though in the extream Simplicity in which they live this can be no long study They are called Hotantots because that when they dance they always in singing say this word Hotantot The Love of the Tobacco and Brandy which the Strangers offer them and which has made them to receive the Hollanders into their Country makes them to dance so long as one will that is to say to stamp sometimes with one Foot and sometimes with the other as he that treads the Grapes and incessantly and vigorously to say Hotantot Hotantot but with a very low voice as if they were out of breath or that they fear'd to awaken any one This mute Song has no diversity of Tones but of Measure the two first Syllables of Hotantot are always two Blacks or Crochets and the last always a White or Minime They go all naked as may be seen in the figure which I have given They have but one skin over their Shoulders like a Cloak yet do they quit it at every place and then they have only a little Leather Purse hung to their Neck by a string and a piece of a Skin a little bigger than one's Hand hung before and fastned with another string round their body but this little piece covers them not either when they show themselves side-ways or when they do make a brisk motion Their stature is acceptable and their gate more easy than can be expressed They are born as white as the Spaniards but they have their Hair very much frizled and Features participating somewhat of those of the Negro's and besides they are always very black because that they grease their Body and Face They do also grease their Head and we smell them twenty Paces when they have the Wind. Our men gave them Pots and Cauldrons to bath in and before all things they took the Fat by hands-full and herewith anointed their whole Body from the Head to the Feet The Grease defends them from the Air and the Sun renders them sound and well disposed and they prefer these natural Advantages before Sweet Scents and Pleasure They are so active that several among them do out-run Horses There is no Brook which they swim not over They are expert in drawing the Bow and throwing the Dart and they have Courage even to Undauntedness They do sometimes worst a Lion provided they have Skins enough and Furniture enough to garnish their left Arm. They do thrust it thus into the Throat of this Animal and they pierce it with a Dart or Knife which they will have in their right hand If they are two the one kills the Lion whilst the other amuses him If they are several and they have nothing to secure themselves from the Claws of the Lion they fail not to expose themselves all at once The one of them generally perishes but the Lion perishes likewise by the Blows which the others give him Sometimes they are all saved and they kill the Lion Their Wives do likewise grease themselves though they affect some Ornament as to fasten little Bones and Shells to their short Cottony and greasie Hair They also have Necklaces with divers colors of Glass Bone or such other matter according as the Foreigners do give them or sell them to them On each Leg they have fifty Rings of Leather which do beat one upon the other and make some Noise when they dance and which defend them from the Briers when they go to get Wood for this care concerns them and not their Husbands The Men and the Women did eat Guts almost without cleansing them when our men presented them therewith and they did hardly put them a moment on the Coals If we offer'd them Brandy they would gather up the first Shell they found on the ground to receive it and after having blow'd therein they used to drink in it They eat their Lice as well as the Cochinchinese and when we thought it strange they answer'd pleasantly that 't is because their Lice eat them They lodge under little Huts made of Branches or great Bulrush Mats the top of which hardly reach'd to my middle and to me it seem'd that I could not lye therein my whole length Under these Mats they make a hole in the ground and in this Hole about two Foot deep they make their Fire not caring for the Smoak whereof their Huts do not empty themselves They live on Hunting Fishing Milk and the Flesh of their Flocks In this Poverty they are always merry singing and dancing continually living without Pains and Business and caring for Gold and Silver only as far as it is necessary for them to buy a little Tobacco and Brandy a Corruption which the Foreign Commerce has introduced into their Customs As some amongst them were exercising themselves in throwing the Dart before us I offer'd them five or six Papers of Necklaces with Beads of coloured Glass and they all so exactly seized my Hand that I could not open it to let go the Necklaces and I could not besides explain my self unto them I was sometime in this perplexity till they perceived that they must set me at Liberty to obtain what they desired They love these Necklaces for their Wives and when we had set sail again I understood that a Laquais of ours had sold one for a Crown to one of them The little Money they have and of which they have little esteem is the Wages for the Service which they render sometimes to the Hollanders and to the other Foreigners which land at the Cape but they care but little to work Every one has but one Wife their Chief only has three and Adultery amongst them is punished with Death They kill their Children when they have too many and as they marry those which they keep exceeding young there is seen amongst them a great many Grand-Daughters already Widows who want a Joynt in their little Finger For when a Woman loses her Husband she cuts off a Joynt of the little Finger or of the fourth Finger if she has so often been a Widow as to have her whole little Finger cut off Nevertheless she may dispence therewith if she please and there are some Husbands who dispence not therewith when they have lost their Wife Most of them do make themselves Ridgils to be more fit for the Women and when the Age of renouncing comes they make themselves entirely Eunuchs to deprive themselves wholly of their Commerce and to enjoy a more vigorous old Age. The Hollanders had educated an Hotantot Infant after the European manner and had sent him into Holland Sometime after they caused him to
no other than that which is at present called Comori or Comorin which is also between the Indus and Ganges nearer the Indus than the Ganges Over against this Cape there is not at present so great an Isle as Taprobane which could be divided by the Equinoxial and environed with 1378 Isles but there is a multitude of little Isles called Maldivae which the Inhabitants report to be to the number of 12 Thousand According to the Relation of Pirard who lived there five years these Isles have a King who assumes to himself the Title of King of 13 Provinces and 12 Thousand Isles Every one of these thirteen Provinces is an heap of little Isles each of which is environed with a great bank of Stone which incloses it all round like a great wall they are called Attolons They have each Thirty miles in circumference a little more or less and are of a figure almost round or oval They are end to end one from the other from the North to the South and they are separated by Channels of the Sea some broad others very narrow These Stone-banks which environ every Attollon are so high and the Sea breaks there with such an impetuosity that they which are in the middle of an Attollon do see these banks all round with the Waves of the Sea which seem as high as the Houses The Inclosure of an Attollon has but 4 Avenues two on the North-side two others on the South-side one of which is at the East the other at the West and the largest of which is 200 paces the narrowest somewhat less than 30. At the two sides of each of these Avenues there are some Isles but the Currents and great Tides do daily diminish the number thereof Pirard adds that to see the inside of one of these Attollons one would say that all these little Isles and the Channels of the Sea which it incloses are only a continued plain and that it was antiently only a single Island cut and divided afterwards into several Every where almost is seen the bottom of the Channels which divide them so shallow they are except in some places and when the Sea is low the water reaches not up to the girdle but to the middle of the leg almost every where There is a violent and perpetual Current which from the month of April to the month of October comes impetuously from the West and causes the continual rains which do there make the Winter and at the other six months the Winds are fixed from the East and do bring a great heat without any rain which causes their Summer At the bottom of these Channels there are great Stones which the Inhabitants do use to build with and they are also stored with a kind of Bushes which resemble Coral which renders the passage of the Boats through these Channels extreamly difficult Linscoten testifies that according to the Mallabars these little Isles have formerly been joyned to the firm Land and that by the succession of time they have been loosed thence by the Violence of the Sea by reason of the lowness of the Land 'T is therefore probable that the Maldivae are a remainder of the great Island Taprobane and of the 1378 Islands which did encompass it which have been carryed away or diminished by the Currents there remaining nothing else but these Rocks which must formerly be the bases of the Mountains and what remains in the inclosure of these Rocks where the Sea dashes so that it is capable only of dividing but not of carrying away the Lands which are included within their Circuit It is certain that these Isles have the same situation in regard of the Equinoxial and Promontory and of the Rivers Indus and Ganges that Ptolomy assigns to several places of the Isle Taprobane The Lords Prayer and the Ave Mary in Siamese with the Interlineary Translation to be inserted in Page 180. Father our Po raou who art in Heaven you savang The Name of God Scheu Pra be glorified hai pra kot in all places touk heng by People all kon tang tai offer to God praise touai Pra pon The Kingdom of God Meuang Pra I pray to find co hai dai with us ke raou to finish hai leou conformable ning to the heart of God tchai pra in the Kingdom of Meuang the Earth Pen-din even as semo of Heaven savang The Nourishment of us Ahan raou of all days touk van I pray co to find hai dai with us ke raou in day van this ni I pray co to pardon prot the offences bap of us raou even semo as we raou pardon prot persons pou who do tam offences bap to us ke raou do not let Ya hai us raou fall tok into nai the cause kovan of Sin bap deliver hai poun out of kiac evil anerai all tang-poang Amen Ave Maria full of Grace Ten anisong God be Pra you in the heng place of you nang You just-good Nang soum-bou more than yingkoua all nang tang tai With Toui Sons louk Womb cutong in the place heng of you nang God pra the person Ongkiao of Jesus Yesu just charitable soum-boui more than ying koua all tang tai Sancta Maria Mother Me of God Pra assist thoui by prayer ving to God von Pra for pro us raou people kon of Sin bap now teit-bat-ni and te in the time moua of our dying raou tcha tai Amen ERRATA PAge 20. line 25. read particular p. 24. l. 34. r. a Tree p. 33. l. 8. which are p. 36. l. 36. r. obliged to honor p. 39. l. 11. r. Eresypeli l. 16. r. are l. 43. r. not bow to p. 68. l. 38 39 43 46. add Bells p. 73. l. 23. r. Tical p. 81. l. 33. r. gold p. 87. l. 50. r. is evicted p. 103. l. 15. 1. certain p. 104. l. 50. r. extinguish p. 108. l. 37. r. returns p. 109. l. 2. dele till p. 120. l. 5. r. remains l. 8. r. wounded p. 125. l. 18. r. prescribed l. 58. r. fatality p. 135. l. 17. dele they p. 136. l. 11. r. leaf of p. 159. l. 1. r. Missionaries p. 160. l. 9. r. takes p. 165. l. 46. r. Ti-non p 166. l. 42. r. Taouac l. 45. r. Touai p. 169. l. 50. r. Sapsoc p. 172. l. 23. r. which p. 174. l. 23. r. at the sides p. 175. l. 35. dele not p. 175. l. 1. dele ' t is p. 194. l. 32. r. the number l. 20. which is substracted from the Onglaa in the third p. 198. l. 7. r. difference is only in l. 8. r. in the 12th p. 201. l. 33. dele the p. 202. l. 43. r. unless these p. 210. l. 28. r. Agreement l. 36. r. Hipparcus p. 212. l. 43. dele the p. 213. l. 19. r. Anno p. 214. l. 15. r. for a lunar month to reduce the Epact p. 217. l. 18. r. how much p. 221. l. 47. r. which form p. 225. in marg r. 424. p. 230. l. 10. r. the former l. 12. r. upright to p. 231. l. 49. r. every p. 236. l. 12. r. determining l. 18. r. method p. 238. l. 21. r. 9 Cases p. 244. l 42. dele not p. 151. l. 12. r. Cu-cum p. 252. l. 45. r. the years begin p. 253. l. 27. r. 10 degrees p. 254. l. 7. r. Ricci p. 255. l. 36. after deductae add p. 256. l. 16. r. these Chinese l. 22. r. and l. 51. r. otherwise in one Constellation FINIS
since improved it from very plentiful Mines and though not very skilful yet they cease not to get a considerable revenue by it This Tin or Calin as the Portuguese report is sold through all India 'T is soft and basely purified and a specimen thereof is seen in the common Tea Boxes or Cannisters which come from this Country But to render it harder and whiter like that of the finest Tea Boxes they mix it with Cadmia a sort of Mineral easily reducible to powder which being melted with the Copper makes it yellow but it renders both these Metals more brittle And 't is this white Tin which they call Tontinague This is what Mr. Vincent relates on the subject of the Mines of Siam Mines of Loadstone In the Neighbourhood of the City of Louvo they have a Mountain of Loadstone They have another also near Jonsalam a City seated in an Island of the Gulph of Bengal which is not above the distance of a Mans voice from the Coast of Siam but the Loadstone which is dug at Jonsalam loses its vertue in three or four Months I know not whether it is not the same in that of Louvo Precious Stones In their Mountains they find very curious Agate and Mr. Vincent inform'd me that he has seen in the hands of the Talapoins who secretly busie themselves in these researches some samples or pieces of Saphires and Diamonds that came out of the Mine He assured me also that some particular Persons having found some Diamonds and given them to the King's Officers were retired to Pegu by by reason they had not receiv'd any recompence Steel I have already said that the City of Campeng-pet is famous for Mines of excellent Steel The Inhabitants of the Country do forge Arms thereof after their fashion as Sabres Poniards and Knives The Knife which they call Pen is used by all and is not look'd upon as Arms although it may serve upon occasion The blade thereof is three or four Fingers broad and about a Foot long The King gives the Sabre and the Poniard They wear the Poniard on the left side hanging a little before The Portuguese do call it Christ a word corrupted from Crid which the Siameses use This word is borrow'd from the Malayan Language which is famous throughout the East and the Crids which are made at Achim in the Isle of Sumatra do pass for the best of all As for the Sabre a Slave always carries it before his Master on his right shoulder as we carry the Musquet on the left They have Iron Mines which they know how to melt Iron and some have inform'd me that they have but little thereof besides they are bad Forge-men For their Gallies they have only wooden Anchors and to the end that these Anchors may sink to the bottom they fasten stones unto them They have neither Pins nor Needles nor Nails nor Chisels nor Saws They use not a Nail in building their Houses altho' they be all of Wood. Every one makes Pins of Bambou even as our Ancestors us'd Thorns for this purpose To them there comes Padlocks from Japan some of Iron which are good and others of Copper which are very naught They do make very bad Gunpowder The defect they say Salt-Petre and Powder proceeds from the Salt-Petre which they gather from their Rocks where it is made of the dung of Batts Animals which are exceeding large and very plentiful throughout India But whether this Salt-Petre be good or bad the King of Siam sells a great deal of it to Strangers Having described the natural Riches of the Mountains and Forests of Siam 't would be proper in this place to speak of the Elephants Rhinoceros Tygers and all other savage Beasts wherewith they are stored yet seeing this matter has been sufficiently explicated by a great many others I shall omit it to pass on to the inhabited and cultivated Lands CHAP. VI. Of the cultivated Lands and their Fertility THey are not Stony it being very difficult to find a Flint The Country of Siam is Clayie and this makes me to believe of the Country of Siam what some have reported of Egypt that it has been gradually formed of the clayish Earth which the Rain-waters have carry'd down from the Mountains Before the mouth of the Menam there is a Bank of Owse which in the Sea-phrase is call'd the Bar and which prohibits entrance to great Ships 'T is probable that it will increase itself by little and little and will in time make a new Shore to the firm Land 'T is therefore this Mud descending from the Mountains The annual Inundation fattens the Lands of Siam that is the real cause of the Fertility of Siam where-ever the Inundation extends itself In other and especially on the highest places all is dry'd and burnt with the Sun in a little time after the Rains Under the Torrid Zone and likewise in Spain whose Climate is more temperate if the Lands are naturally fertile as for Example between Murcia and Carthagena where the Seed yields sometimes an hundred fold they are nevertheless so subject to Drought Insects and other Inconveniences that it frequently happens that they are deprived of the whole Harvest several years together And 't is this which betides all the Countries of India which are not subject to be overflowed and which besides the barrenness of the Soil do suffer the ravages of contagious and pestilential Distempers which succeed it But the annual Inundation gives to Siam the assurance and plenty of the Rice Harvest and renders this Kingdom the Nourisher of several others Besides the Inundations fatning the Land it destroys the Insects It destroys the Insects altho' it always leaves a great many which extremely incommode Nature instructs all the Animals of Siam to avoid the Inundation The Birds which perch not in our Countries as Partridges and Pigeons do all perch in that The Pismires doubly prudent do here make their Nests and Magazines on Trees White Ants at Siam There are white Ants which amongst other ravages which they make do pierce Books through and through The Missionaries are oblig'd to preserve theirs by varnishing them over the cover and edges with a little Cheyram which hinders them not from opening After this precaution the Ants have no more power to bite and the Books are more agreeable by reason that this Gum being mixt with nothing that colours it has the same lustre as the Glasses wherewith we cover Pictures in Miniature This would be no dear nor difficult Experiment to try whether the Cheyram would not defend the wood of our Beds against Buggs 'T is this same Cheyram which being spread upon Canvas makes it appear like Horn. Therewith they us'd to environ the great Cresset-lights which some reported to be of Horn and all of a piece Sometimes also those little Cups varnish'd with red which come to us from Japan and whose lightness astonishes us do consist
only of a double Cloth put into the form of a Cup and cover'd over with this Gum mixt with a colour which we call Lacca or Chinese Varnish as I have already declar'd these Cups last not long when too hot Liquors are put therein The Marin-gouins To return to the Insects which we have begun occasionally to speak of the Marin-gouins are of the same Nature as our Gnats but the heat of the Climat gives them so much strength that shamois Stockings defend not our Legs against their Stings Nevertheless it seems possible to know how to deal with them for the Natives of the Country and the Europeans that have inhabited there for several years were not so marked with them as we were The Millepede The Millepede or Palmer is known at Siam as in the Isles of America This little Reptile is so called because it has a great number of feet along its body all very short in proportion to its length which is about five or six Inches What it has most singular besides the scales in form of rings which cover its body and which insert themselves one into the other in its motions is that it pinches equally with its head and tail but its Stings tho' painful are not mortal A French Man of that Crew which went to Siam with us and whom we left there in perfect health suffer'd himself to be stung in his Bed above a quarter of an hour without daring to lay hold on the Worm to relieve himself The Siameses report that the Millepede has two heads at the extremities of its body and that it guides itself six months in the year with the one and six months with the other The Ignorance of the Siameses in things Natural But their History of Animals must not easily be credited they understand not Bodies better than Souls and in all matters their inclination is to imagine Wonders and persuade themselves so much the more easily to believe them as they are more incredible What they report of a sort of Lizard named Toc-quay proceeds from an Ignorance and Credulity very singular They imagine that this Animal feeling his Liver grow too big makes the Cry which has impos'd on him the name of Toc-quay to call another Insect to its succor and that this other Insect entering into his Body at his mouth eats the overplus of the Liver and after this repast retires out of the Toc-quay's body by the same way that he enter'd therein Shining Flyes The shining Flyes like Locusts have four wings which do all appear when the Fly takes a flight but the two thinnest of them are concealed under the strongest when the Fly is at repose We hardly saw these little Animals by reason that the rainy time was past when we landed The North-winds which begin when the Rains cease either kill them or drive them all away They have some light in their Eyes but their greatest splendor proceeds from under their wings and glitters only in the Air when the wings are display'd What some report therefore is not true that they might be us'd in the Night instead of Candles for tho' they had light enough what method could be contriv'd to make them always flie and keep them at a due distance to illuminate But thus much may suffice to be spoken concerning the Insects of Siam they would afford matter for large Volumes to know them all I shall say only that there are not fewer in the River and Gulph Insects in the waters than on the Land and that in the River there are some very dangerous which is the reason that the rich Men do bathe themselves only in houses of Bambou CHAP. VII Of the Grain of Siam RICE is the principal Harvest of the Siameses and their best Nourishment Rice it refreshes and fattens And we found our Ship 's Crew express some regret when after a three months allowance thereof they were return'd to Bisket and yet the Bisket was very good and well kept The Siameses know by experience how to measure the water The way of boiling it in pure water fire and time necessary to the Rice without bursting the Grain and so it serves them for Bread Not that they mix it with all their other Food as we do Bread when they eat Flesh or Fish for example they eat the one and the other without Rice and when they eat Rice they eat it separately They squeeze it a little between the ends of their Fingers to reduce it into a Paste and so they put it into their mouth as our Poor do eat Pottage The Chineses do never touch any meat but with two small Sticks squar'd at the end which do serve them instead of a Fork They hold to their lower Lip a small Porcelane or China Cup wherein is their portion of Rice and holding it steady with their left hand they strike the Rice into their mouth with the two Sticks which they hold in their right hand The Levantines or Eastern People Or in milk do sometimes boil Rice with Flesh and Pepper and then put some Saffron thereunto and this Dish they call Pilau This is not the practice of the Siameses but generally they boil the Rice in clear water as I have said and sometimes they boil it with milk as we do on fasting days At Siam in the Lands high enough to avoid the Inundation Wheat there grows Wheat they water them either with watering Pots like those in our Gardens or by overflowing it with the Rain-water which they keep in Cisterns much higher than these Lands But either by reason of the Care or Expence or that the Rice suffices for common use the King of Siam only has Wheat and perhaps more out of Curiosity than a real Gusto They call it Kaou Possali and the word Kaou simply signifieth Rice Now these terms being neither Arabian nor Turkish nor Persian I doubt of what was told me that Wheat was brought to Siam by the Moors The French which are setled there do import Meal from Surrat altho' near Siam there is a Windmil to grind Corn and another near Louvo In a word the Bread which the King of Siam gave us was so dry Wheaten Bread too dry at Siam that the Rice boil'd in pure water how insipid soever was more agreeable to me I less wonder therefore at what the Relations of China report that the Soveraign of this great Kingdom altho' he has Bread does rather prefer Rice yet some Europeans assur'd me that the wheaten Bread of Siam is good and that the driness of ours must proceed from a little Rice-flower which is doubtless mixt with the Wheat for fear perhaps lest the Bread should fail At Siam I have seen Pease different from ours The Siameses like us Other Grain do make more than one Crop but they make only one in a year upon the same Land not that the Soil was not good enough in my
more uncertain But what they account most difficult is to get upon this Wire by the part of that same Wire which is fasten'd to the ground and to descend thence by one of the Bambou's which are plac'd like a St. Andrew's Cross to support it as also to sit on the Wire cross-leg'd to hold there one of those Bands which serves them as a Table to eat on it and to raise themselves on their Feet They cease not likewise to ascend and dance upon an extended Rope but without a Counterpoise and with Babouches or Slippers on their Feet and with Sabres and Buckets of water fasten'd to their Legs There are such who plant a very high Ladder in the ground the two sides of which are of Bambou's and the steps of Sabres the edges of which are turned upwards He goes to the top of this Ladder and stands and dances without any support on the edge of the Sabre which makes the last step thereof whilst the Ladder has more motion than a Tree shaken by the wind then he descends Head foremost and passes nimbly winding between all the Sabres I saw him descend but observed not when he was on the highest Sabre and I went not to examine whether the Steps were Sabres not reckoning that the Sabres could be keen except perhaps the lowest because they are most expos'd to view I omit the rest of this matter as little important and because I have not sufficiently observ'd it to support it with my Testimony Tame Serpents The Emperor Galba being in his Praetorship exhibited to the Roman People the sight of some Elephants dancing upon Ropes The Elephants of Siam are not so experienc'd and the only Animals that I know the Siameses instruct are great Serpents which they say are very dangerous These Animals do move themselves at the sound of the Instruments as if they would dance But this passes for Magic because that always in that Country as oftentimes in this those who have some extraordinary Artifice do pretend that it consists in some mysterious words Religious Shows An Illumination on the Waters and another on the Land and in the Palace The Siameses have also some Religious Shows When the Waters begin to retreat the People returns them Thanks for several Nights together with a great Illumination not only for that they are retired but for the Fertility which they render to the Lands The whole River is then seen cover'd with floating Lanthorns which pass with it There are of different Sizes according to the Devotion of every particular Person the variously painted Paper whereof they are made augments the agreeable effect of so many Lights Moreover to thank the Earth for the Harvest they do on the first days of their Year make another magnificent Illumination The first time we arriv'd at Louvo was in the Night and at the time of this Illumination and we saw the Walls of the City adorned with lighted Lanthorns at equal distances but the inside of the Palace was much more pleasant to behold In the Walls which do make the Inclosures of the Courts there were contrived three rows of small Niches all round in every of which burnt a Lamp The Windows and Doors were likewise all adorn'd with several Fires and several great and small Lanthorns of different Figures garnished with Paper or Canvas and differently painted were hung up with an agreeable Symmetry on the Branches of Trees or on Posts Excellent Artificial Fire-works I saw no Fire-works in which nevertheless the Chineses of Siam do excel and they made some very curious during our residence at Siam and Louvo At China there is also made a solemn Illumination at the beginning of their Year and at another time another great Festival on the Water without any Illumination The Chineses agree not in the Reasons they give thereof but they give none upon the account of Religion and those which they give are puerile and fabulous We must not omit the Paper-Kite in Siamese Vao A Paper-Kite the Amusement of all the Courts of the Indies in Winter I know not whether it be a piece of Religion or not but the great Mogul who is a Mahometan and not an Idolater delights himself also therein Sometimes they fasten Fire thereunto which in the Air appears like a Planet And sometimes they do there put a piece of Gold which is for him that finds the Kite in case the String breaks or that the Kite falls so far distant that it cannot be drawn back again That of the King of Siam is in the Air every Night for the two Winter-months and some Mandarins are nominated to ease one another in holding the String The Siameses have three sorts of Stage-Plays Three sorts of Stage-Plays amongst the Siameses That which they call Cone is a Figure-dance to the Sound of the Violin and some other Instruments The Dancers are masqued and armed and represent rather a Combat than a Dance And tho' every one runs into high Motions and extravagant Postures they ceasse not continually to intermix some word Most of their Masks are hideous and represent either monstrous Beasts or kinds of Devils The Show which they call Lacone is a Poem intermixt with Epic and Dramatic which lasts three days from eight in the Morning till seven at Night They are Histories in Verse serious and sung by several Actors always present and which do only sing reciprocally One of them sings the Historian's part and the rest those of the Personages which the History makes to speak but they are all Men that sing and no Women The Rabam is a double Dance of Men and Women which is not Martial but Gallant and they presented unto us the Diversion thereof with the others which I have before mentioned These Dancers both Men and Women have all false Nails and very long ones of Copper They sing some words in their dancing and they can perform it without much tyring themselves because their way of dancing is a simple march round very slow and without any high motion but with a great many slow Contorsions of the Body and Arms so they hold not one another Mean while two Men entertain the Spectators with several Fooleries which the one utters in the name of all the Men-dancers and the other in the name of all the Women-dancers All these Actors have nothing singular in their Habits only those that dance in the Rabam and Cone have gilded Paper-Bonnets high and pointed like the Mandarins Caps of Ceremony but which hang down at the sides below their Ears and which are adorned with counterfeit Stones and with two Pendants of gilded wood The Cone and the Rabam are always call'd at Funerals and sometimes on other occasions and 't is probable that these Shows contain nothing Religious since the Talapoins are prohibited to be present thereat The Lacone serves principally to solemnize the Feast of the Dedication of a new Temple when a new Statue of
he always has more than the natural Indians and not only for the Mechanic Arts but for the Sea and for Commerce to which they are much more affected The Inconvenience is that the Indian Kings do well know the Secret either of enriching a Stranger only with hopes or of detaining him amongst them if they have really enrich'd him Nothing is so magnificent as the Grants which the great Mogul gives But is there found one European that has carry'd away much wealth out of his Service What Arts they exercise To return to the Industry of the Siameses the Arts which they understand are these They are reasonable good Joyners and because they have no Nails they very well understand how to fasten pieces together They pretend to Sculpture but grosly perform it The Statues of their Temples are very ill made They know how to burn Brick and make excellent Ciments and are not unskill'd in Masonry Nevertheless their Brick Buildings do not last for want of Foundations they do not make any even in their Fortifications They have no melted Crystal nor Glass and it is one of the things they most esteem The King of Siam was extreamly pleased with those Fosset-cut Glasses which multiply an Object and he demanded entire Windows with the same property The Windows of the Chineses The Windows of the Chineses are compos'd with Threds of Glass as big as Straws laid one by another and glued at the ends to Paper as we solder the Quarries of Glass into our Window-frames They do frequently put some Paintings on these sorts of Glasses and with these Glasses thus painted they sometimes make Pannels of Screens behind which they love to set some lights because they extreamly admire the Fancy of Illuminations How the Siameses do use Metals The Siameses do know to melt Metals and cast some Works in Molds They do cover their Idols which are sometimes enormous masses of Brick and Lime with a very thin Plate either of Gold or Silver or Copper I have in my possession a little Sommona-Codom which is thus cover'd over with a Copper Plate gilded and which is yet full of the Ciment which served as the Model With such a Plate of Gold or Silver they cover certain of their King's Moveables and the Iron hilt of the Sabres and Daggers which he presents to some of his Officers and sometimes to Strangers They are not wholly ignorant of the Goldsmith's Trade but they neither know how to polish nor to set precious Stones How they write on a Leaf of Gold They are excellent Gilders and know very well how to beat the Gold As often as the King of Siam writes to another King he does it upon a Leaf of that Metal as thin as a Leaf of Paper The Letters are imprinted thereon with a blunt Poinson or Bodkin like those with which we write in our Table-Books They are bad Smiths and no Tanners They make use of Iron only as it is Cast by reason they are bad Forge-men their Horses are not shod and have commonly Stirrups of Rope and very paltry Snaffles They have no better Saddles the Art of Tanning and preparing Skins being absolutely unknown at Siam They make little Linnen and no Stuffs They make little Cotton-Cloth and that very course with a very nasty Painting and only in the Metropolis They make no Stuffs neither of Silk nor Wooll nor any Tapestry-work Wooll is here very scarce They understand Embroidery and their Designs please The painting of the Siameses and Chineses In one of their Temples I saw a very pleasant Picture in Fresco the Colours of which were lively There was no Ordonance and it made us to remember our ancient Tapestries 'T was not certainly the work of a Siamese hand The Siameses and Chineses know not how to paint in Oil and moreover they are bad Painters Their Fancy is to slight and disesteem whatever is after Nature only To them it seems that an exact Imitation is too easie wherefore they overdo every thing They will therefore have Extravagancies in Painting as we will have Wonders in Poetry They represent Trees Flowers Birds and other Animals which never were They sometimes give unto Men impossible Proportions and the Secret is to give to all these things a Facility which may make them to appear Natural This is what concerns the Arts. CHAP. XIV Of the Traffic amongst the Siameses THE most general Professions at Siam are Fishing for the common People Fishing and Commerce are the two Professions which do almost employ all the Siameses and Merchandize for all those that have wherewith to follow it I say all not excepting their King himself But the Foreign Trade being reserved almost entire to the King the Home Trade is so inconsiderable that it is impossible to raise any competent Fortune thereby That simplicity of Manners which makes the Siameses to let go most of the Arts makes them also to slight most of the Commodities which are necessary to the Europeans yet see how the Siameses carry on their Commerce In their Loans a third person whosoever he be writes down the Promise What their private Writings are and this sufficeth them in Justice because it is determined against the word of the Debtor who denies upon the double Testimony of him that produces the Promise and of him that writ It is necessary only that it appear by the viewing of the Writing that it is not the Creditor that writ the Promise Moreover they sign no Writings What their Signature is neither do they apply any Seal to private Writings 'T is only the Magistrates that have a Seal that is properly a Seal which the King gives them as an Instrument of their Offices Particular Persons instead of a Signature do put a single Cross and tho' this kind of Signature be practised by all yet every one knows the Cross which is under his own hand and it is very rare they say that any one is of a Reputation so bad as to disown it in Justice In a word I shall transiently declare that we must not search out any Mystery in that they sign with a Cross 'T is amongst them only a kind of Flourish which they have preferr'd before any other probably because it is more plain I have said that they endow the Virgins at their marrying They have no public Writing nor Notaries and that the Portion is paid to the Husband in presence of the Parents but without any Writing I have said also that they make no Will and that before their death they dispose of their Estate with their own hand and to whom they please and that after this manner Custom disposes of their Inheritance They Trade little with Immoveables no person amongst them thinking it safe to purchase Land of another the Prince gives or sells thereof to whoever would have it But the real Property remaining always in him is the reason that none in this
weakness Their Friendship is perfidious Their manner of promising themselves an eternal amity is by drinking of the same Aqua Vitae in the same Cup and when they would swear themselves more solemnly they taste the blood one of another which Lucian gives us for a Custom of the ancient Scythians and which is practised also by the Chineses and by other Nations but the Siameses cease not sometimes to betray after all these Ceremonies They are naturally more moderate than we are because they are more dull In general they have more Moderation than us their Humors are as calm as their Heaven which changes only twice a year and insensibly when it turns by little and little from Rain to Fair-weather and from Fair-weather to Rain They act only by necessity and do not like us place merit in Action It seems not rational to them that Labour and Pains should be the Fruit and Reward of Vertue They have the good Fortune to be born Philosophers and it may be that if they were not born such they would not become so more than we I therefore willingly believe what the Ancients have reported that Philosophy came from the Indies into Europe and that we have been more concerned at the insensibility of the Indians than the Indians have been at the wonders which our inquietude has produced in the discovery of so many different Arts whereof we flatter our selves perhaps to no purpose that necessity was the Mother But enough is spoken of the Siameses in general let us enter into the particulars of their manners according to their various conditions PART III. Of the Manners of the Siameses according to their several Conditions CHAP. I. Of the several Conditions among the Siameses AT Siam all Persons are either Freemen or Slaves Of the Slavery according to the Manners of Siam The Master has all power over the Slave except that of killing him And tho' some may report that Slaves are severely beaten there which is very probable in a Country where free persons are so rigidly bastinado'd yet the Slavery there is so gentile or if you will the Liberty is so abject that it is become a Proverb that the Siameses sell it to eat of a Fruit which they call Durions I have already said that they chuse rather to enjoy it than to enjoy none at all 'T is certain also that they dread Beggary more than Slavery and this makes me to think that Beggary is there as painful as ignominious and that the Siameses who express a great deal of Charity for Beasts even to the relieving them if they find any sick in the Fields have very little for the Men. They employ their Slaves in cultivating their Lands and Gardens In what the Slaves are employed and in some domestic Services or rather they permit them to work to gain their livelihood under a Tribute which they receive from four to eight Ticals a Year that is to say from seven Livres ten Sols to fifteen Livres One may be born or become a Slave One becomes so either for Debt A Siamese may be born or become a Slave as I have said or for having been taken Captive in War or for having been confiscated by Justice When one is made a Slave for Debt his Liberty returns again by making satisfaction but the Children born during this Slavery tho' it be but for a time continue Slaves One is born a Slave when born of a Mother-slave and in the Slavery How he is born a Slave and to whom he belongs the Children are divided as in the Divorce The first third fifth and all the rest in the odd number belong to the Master of the Mother the second fourth and all the others in the even rank belong to the Father if he is free or to his Master if he is a Slave 'T is true that it is necessary upon this account that the Father and Mother should have had Commerce together with the consent of the Master of the Mother for otherwise all the Children would belong to the Master of the Mother The difference of the King of Siam's Slaves from his Subjects of free condition is that he continually employs his Slaves in personal labours The difference between the King of Siam's Slaves and his other Subjects The Slaves of private men owe not any service to the King Of the Siamese Nobility and maintains them whereas his free Subjects only owe him six months service every Year but at their own expence In a word the Slaves of particular men owe not any service to that Prince and tho' for this Reason he loses a Freeman when this man falls into slavery either for Debt or to avoid Beggary yet this Prince opposes it not neither pretends any Indemnity upon this account Properly speaking there is not two sorts of Conditions among free persons Nobility is no other thing than the actual possession of Offices the Families which do long maintain themselves therein do become doubtless more illustrious and more powerful but they are rare and so soon as they have lost their Offices they have nothing which distinguishes them from the common People There is frequently seen at the Pagaye the Grandson of a Man who died a great Lord and sometimes his own Son Of the Priests or Talapoins The distinction between the People and the Priests is only an uncertain distinction seeing that one may continually pass from one of these States to the other The Priests are the Talapoins of whom we shall speak in the sequel Under the Name of People I comprehend whatever is not a Priest viz. the King Officers and People of whom we now proceed to speak CHAP. II. Of the Siamese People The Siamese people is a Militia THE Siamese People is a Militia where every particular person is registred They are all Souldiers in Siamese Taban and do all owe six Months service annually to their Prince It belongs to the Prince to arm them and give them Elephants or Horses if he would have them serve either on Elephants or on Horseback but it belongs to them to cloath and to maintain themselves And as the Prince never employs all his Subjects in his Armies and that oftentimes he sends no Army into the Field though he be at War with some of his Neighbours yet for six months in the year he employs in such a work or in such a service as pleases him those Subjects which he employs not in the War Is counted and divided into men on the right hand and on the left Wherefore to the end that no person may escape the personal service of the Prince there is kept an exact account of the People 'T is divided into men on the right hand and men on the left to the end that every one may know on what side he ought to range himself in his Functions And by Bands And besides this it is divided into Bands each of which
The King of Siam's Revenues arise from two Sources and Revenues of the Country The Country Revenues are received by Oc ya Pollatep according to some or Vorethep according to Mr. Gervase They are all reduced to the Heads following 1. On Forty Fathom Square of cultivated Lands His Duties on cultivated Lands a Mayon or quarter of a Tical by year but this Rent is divided with the Tchaou-Meuang where there is one and it is never well paid to the King on the Frontiers Besides this the Law of the Kingdom is that whoever ploughs not his ground pays nothing though it be by his own negligence that he reaps nothing But the present King of Siam to force his Subjects to work has exacted this duty from those that have possessed Lands for a certain time although they omit to cultivate them Yet this is executed only in the places where his Authority is absolute He loved nothing so much as to see Strangers come to settle in his States there to manure those great uncultivated Spaces which without comparison do make the most considerable part thereof in this case he would be liberal of untilled grounds and of Beasts to cultivate them though they had been cleared and prepared for Tillage 2. On Boats or Balons On Boats the Natives of the Country pay a Tical for every Fathom in length Under this Reign they have added that every Balon or Boat above six Cubits broad should pay six Ticals and that Foreigners should be obliged to this duty as well as the Natives of the Country This duty is levied like a kind of Custom at certain places of the River and amongst others at Tchainat four Leagues above Siam where all the Streams unite 3. Customs on whatever is imported or exported by Sea Besides which Customes the body of the Ship pays something in proportion to its Capacities like the Balons 4. On Arak or Rice-Brandy or rather on every Furnace where it is made On Arak which they call Taou-laou the People of the Country do pay a Tical per Annum This Duty has been doubled under this Reign and is exacted on the Natives of the Country and on Strangers alike 'T is likewise added that every Seller of Arak by re-tail should pay a Tical a year and every Seller by whole-sale a Tical per Annum for every great Pot the size of which I find no otherwise described in the Note which was given me 5. On the Fruit called Durion for every Tree already bearing On Durions or not bearing Fruit two Mayons or half a Tical per annum 6. On every Tree of Betel a Tical per annum On Betel 7. On every Arekier they formerly paid three Nuts of Arek in kind On the Arek under this Reign they pay six 8. Revenues entirely new or established under this Reign New Imposts are in the first place a certain Duty on a School of Recreation permitted at Siam The Tribute which the Oc-ya Meen pays is almost of the same Nature but I know not whether it is not ancienter than the former In the second place on every Coco-Tree half a Tical per Annum and in the third place on Orange-Trees Mango-Trees Mangoustaniers and Pimentiers for each a Tical per Annum There is no duty on Pepper by reason that the King would have his Subjects addict themselves more to plant it A Demesn reserved to the King 9. This Prince has in several places of his States some Gardens and Lands which he causes to be cultivated as his particular demesn as well by his Slaves as by the six Months Service He causes the Fruits to be gathered and kept on the places for the maintenance of his House and for the nourishment of his Slaves his Elephants his Horses and other Cattle and the rest he sells 10. A Casual Revenue is the Presents which this Prince receives as well as all the Officers of his Kingdom the Legacies which the Officers bequeath him at their death or which he takes from their Succession and in fine the extraordinary Duties which he takes from his Subjects on several occasions as for the Maintenance of Foreign Ambassadors to which the Governors into whose Jurisdiction the Ambassadors do pass or sojourn are obliged to contribute and for the building of Forts and other publick works an expence which he levies on the People amongst whom these works are made Confiscations and Fines Six Months Service 11. The Revenues of Justice do donsist in Confiscations and Fines 12. Six Months service of every one of his Subjects per Annum a Service which he or his Officers frequently extend much further who alone discharges it from every thing and from which there remains to him a good Increase For in certain places this Service is converted into a payment made in Rice or in Sapan-wood or Lignum-aloes or Saltpetre or in Elephants or in Beasts Skins or in Ivory or in other Commodities and in fine this Service is sometimes esteemed and paid in ready Money and it is for the ready Money that the Rich are exempted Anciently this Service was esteemed at a Tical a Month because that one Tical is sufficient to maintain one Man and this computation serves likewise as an assessment on the days Labour of the Workmen which a particular Person employs They amount to two Ticals a Month at least by reason that it is reckon'd that a Workman must in 6 Months gain his Maintenance for the whole year seeing that he can get nothing the other six Months that he serves the Prince The Prince now extorts two Ticals a Month for the exemption from the six Months Service Commerce a Revenue extraordinary or casual 13. His other Revenues do arise from the Commerce which he exercises with his Subjects and Foreigners He has carried it to such a degree that Merchandize is now no more the Trade of particular persons at Siam He is not contented with selling by Whole-sale he has some Shops in the Bazars or Markets to sell by Re-tail Cotton-cloath The principal thing that he sells to his Subjects is Cotton-cloath he sends them into his Magazines of the Provinces Heretofore his Predecessors and he sent them thither only every Ten Years and a moderate quantity which being sold particular persons had liberty to make Commerce thereof now he continually furnishes them he has in his Magazines more than he can possibly sell and it sometimes happens that to vend more that he has forced his Subjects to cloath their Children before the accustomed Age. Before the Hollanders came into the Kingdom of Laos and into others adjacent the King of Siam did there make the whole Commerce of Linnen with a considerable profit The Calin or Tin All the Calin is his and he sells it as well to Strangers as to his own Subjects excepting that which is dug out of the Mines of Jonsalam on the Gulph of Bengal for this being a
Indians have added to these Errors The Indians do now believe like the ancient Chineses some Souls as well good as bad diffused every where to which they have distributed the Divine Omnipotence And there is yet found some remains of this very Opinion amongst the Indians which have embraced Mahumetanism But by a new Error the Pagans of the Indies have thought all these Souls of the same nature and they have made them all to rowl from one body to another The Spirit of the Heaven of the ancient Chineses had some Air of Divinity It was I think immortal and not subject to wax old and to die and to leave its place to a Successor but in the Indian Doctrine of the Metempsychosis the Souls are fixed no where and succeeding one another every where they are not one better than another by their nature they are only designed to higher or lower functions in Nature according to the merit of their work Why the Indians have consecrated no Temple to the Spirits not even to that of Heaven The Antient Chineses have divided the Justice of God The Justice of Heaven was principally busied in punishing the Faults of the Kings of China Thus the Indians have consecrated no Temples to the Spirits not so much as to that of Heaven because they believe them all Souls like all the rest which are still in the course of Transmigration that is to say in Sin and in the Torments of different sorts of life and consequently unworthy of having Altars But if the ancient Chineses have as I may say reduc'd the Providence and Omnipotence of God into piece-meals they have not less divided his Justice They assert that the Spirits like concealed Ministers were principally busied in punishing the hidden faults of men that the Spirit of Heaven punished the faults of the King the Ministring Spirits of Heaven the faults of the King's Ministers and so of other Spirits in regard of other men On this Foundation they said to their King that though he was the adoptive Son of Heaven yet the Heaven would not have any regard to him by any sort of Affliction but by the sole consideration of the good or evil that he should do in the Government of his Kingdom They called the Chinese Empire the Celestial Command because said they a King of China ought to govern his State as Heaven governed Nature and that it was to Heaven that he ought to seek the Science of Governing They acknowledged that not only the Art of Ruling was a Present from Heaven but that Regality it self was given by Heaven and that it was a present difficult to keep because that they supposed that Kings could not maintain themselves on the Throne without the savour of Heaven nor please Heaven but by Vertue How they believe their Kings responsable to Heaven for the manners of their Subjects They carried this Doctrine so far that they pretended that the sole Vertue of Kings might render their Subjects Vertuous and that thereby the Kings were first responsible to Heaven for the wicked manners of their Kingdom The Vertue of Kings that is to say the Art of Ruling according to the Laws of China was in their Opinion a Donative from Heaven which they called Celestial Reason or Reason given by Heaven and like to that of Heaven The Vertue of Subjects according to them the regards of the Citizens as well from one to another as from all towards their Prince according to the Laws of China was the work of good Kings 'T is a small matter said they to punish Crimes it is necessary that a King prevents them by his Vertue They extoll one of their Kings for having reigned Twenty two years the People not perceiving that is to say not feeling the weight of the Royal Authority no more than the force which moves Nature and which they attribute to Heaven They report then that for these Twenty two years there was not one single Process in all China nor one single Execution of Justice a Wonder which they call to govern imperceptably like the Heaven and which alone may cause a doubt of the Fidelity of their History Another of their Kings meeting as they say a Criminal which was lead to Punishment took it upon himself for that under his Reign he committed Crimes worthy of Death And another seeing China afflicted with Sterility for seven years condemned himself if their History may be credited to bear the Crimes of his People as thinking himself only culpable and resolved to devote himself to death and to sacrifice himself to the Spirit of Heaven the Revenger of the Crimes of Kings But their History adds that Heaven satisfied with the Piety of that Prince exempted him from that Sacrifice and restored Fertility to the Lands by a sudden and plentiful Rain As the Heaven therefore executes Justice only upon the King and that it inflicts it only upon the King for what it sees punishable in the People the Ministers of Heaven do execute Justice on the secret Faults which the King's Ministers commit and all the Officers which depend upon them and after the same manner the other Spirits do watch over the Actions of the Men that in the Kingdom of China have a rank equal to that which these Spirits do possess in the invincible Monarchy of Nature whereof the Spirit of Heaven is King Besides this the natural Honor which most men have of the dead The Chineses fear their dead Parents whom they knew very well in their Life-time and the Opinion which several have of having seen them appear to them whether by an effect of this natural Honor which represents them to them or by Dreams so lively that they resemble the Truth do induce the ancient Chineses to believe that the Souls of their Ancestors which they judged to be of very subtile matter pleased themselves in continuing about their Posterity and that they might though after their death chastise the Faults of their Children The Chinese People still continue in these opinions of the temporal Punishments and Rewards which come from the Soul of Heaven and from all the other Souls though moreover for the greatest part they have embraced the Opinion of the Metempsychosis unknown to their Ancestors But by little and little the Men of Letters that is to say The Impiety of the present Chineses which are men of Learning those that have some degrees of Literature and who alone have a Hand in the Government being become altogether impious and yet having altered nothing in the Language of their Predecessors have made of the Soul of Heaven and of all the other Souls I know not what aerial substances uuprovided of Intelligence and for the Judge of our Works they have established a blind Fatality which in their opinion makes that which might exercise an Omnipotent and Illuminated Justice How ancient this Impiety is at China belongs not to me to determin Father de Rhodes in his