reason that the heat of the day dissipates all their Spirits Our Flowers have most scent about the Evening and we have some but few that smell only at Night Whatever has not naturally a great deal of taste and smell Why there is no Muscadine Grapes in Persia nor at Suratt cannot keep them in Countries extreamly hot Thus though there be Grapes in Persia and at Suratt yet there can be no Muscadine Grapes what care soever is therein employed The best Plants which are transported thither from Europe do presently degenerate and yield the second year ordinary Grapes only But at Siam where the Climate is much hotter there are no good Grapes Nor Grapes at Siam The few Vines which are planted at Louvo in the King's Garden produce only some bad Grapes which are small and of a bitter taste Pure Water is their ordinary Drink they love only to drink it perfum'd Pure water the ordinary drink of the Siameses whereas to our Palate Water which has no smell is the best As the Siameses go not to draw it at the Springs which are doubtless too remote it is wholesom only when it has been setled more or fewer days according as the Inundation is higher or lower or wholly run out For when the Waters retire and they are filled with Mud and perhaps with the ill Juices which they take from the Earth or when the River is re-entred into its Channel sufficiently muddy they are more corrosive do cause Disenteries and Lasks and cannot be drunk without danger till they have let them stand in great Jars or Pitchers the space of three Weeks or a Month. At Louvo the Waters are much more unwholsome than at Siam The Waters of Louvo and of Tlee Poussone by reason that the whole River flows not thither but only an Arm which has been turned thither which runs always decreasing after the Rains and at last leaves its Channel dry The King of Siam drinks water from a great Cistern made in the Fields on which is kept a continual Watch. Besides that this Prince has a little house called Tlee Poussone or Rich Sea about a League from Louvo It is seated on the brink of certain Low-lands about two or three Leagues in extent which receive the Rain-waters and preserve them This little Sea is of an irregular figure its Shores are neither handsom nor even but its Waters are wholesome by reason they are deep and setled and I have also heard that the King of Siam drinks thereof For pleasure and conversation the Siameses do take Tea Tea I mean the Siameses of the City of Siam For the use of Tea is unknown in all the other places of the Kingdom But at Siam the Custom is throughly setled and 't is amongst them a necessary Civility to present Tea to all that visit them They call it Tcha as do the Chineses and have not two Terms the one for what we call Tea and the other for what we call Cha or Flower of Tea 'T is certain that it is not a Flower But to assert whether they are the budding Leaves and consequently the tenderest or the highest and consequently the less nourished or the point of the Leaves which have been boil'd at China or a kind of particular Tea is what I cannot determine by reason that various Accounts have been given me thereof The Siameses do reckon three sorts of Tea the Tchaboui or Boui Tea Three sorts of Tea which is reddish which some say fattens and is astringent 't is look'd upon at Siam as a Remedy for the Flux The Somloo Tea which on the contrary purges gently And the third sort of Tea which has no particular Name that I know and which neither loosens nor binds The Chineses and all the Orientals use Tea as a Remedy against the Head-ach Tea is a sudorifick But then they make it stronger and after having drunk five or six Cups they lye down in their bed cover themselves up and sweat It is not very difficult in such hot Climates for Sudorificks to operate and they are looked upon there almost as general Remedies The manner of preparing Tea They prepare the Tea in this manner They have Copper Pots tinn'd on the inside wherein they boil the Water and it boils in an instant by reason the Copper thereof is very thin This Copper comes from Japan if my Memory fails me not and 't is so easie to work that I question whether we have any so pliant in Europe These Pots are called Boulis and on the other hand they have Boulis of red Earth which is without taste tho without Varnish They first rince the Earthen Bouli with boiling water to heat it then they put in as much Tea as one can take up with the Finger and Thumb and afterwards fill it with boiling water and after having covered it they still pour boiling water on the outside they stop not the Spout as we do When the Tea is sufficiently infused that is to say when the Leaves are precipitated they pour the Liquor into China dishes which at first they fill only half to the end that if it appear too strong or too deep they may temper it by pouring in pure water which they still keep boiling in the Copper Bouly Nevertheless if they will still drink they do again fill the Earthen Bouly with this boiling water and so they may do several times without adding any more Tea until they see that the water receives no tincture They put no Sugar into the Dishes by reason they have none refin'd which is not candy and the candy melts too slowly They do therefore take a little in their mouth which they champ as they drink their Tea When they would have no more Tea they turn the Cup down on the Saucer because that 't is the greatest incivility among them to refuse any thing and that if they leave the Cup standing they fail not to serve them again with Tea which they are oblig'd to receive But they forbear to fill the Dish unless they would testifie to him unto whom they present it full that 't is as some say for once and that it is not expected that he ever come again to the House Excellent water necessary for Tea The most experienced do say that the Water cannot be too clear for Tea that Cistern-water is the best as being the most pure and that the finest Tea in the world becomes bad in water which is not excellent Whether it is necessary to drink the Tea hot In a word if the Chineses drink Tea so hot 't is not perhaps that they have found it either more wholesom or more pleasant after this manner for they drink all sorts of Liquor at the same degree of heat unless the Tartars have now taught them as it is said to drink Ice 'T is true that the infusion of Tea is perform'd quicker in hot water than cold but I have
other does greatly illustrate them I hope also that a pardon will be granted me for the Siamese names which I relate and explain These remarks will make other relations intelligible as well as mine which without these Illustrations might sometimes cause a doubt concerning what I assert In a word those with whom I am acquainted do know that I love the Truth but it is not sufficient to give a sincere relation to make it appear true 'T is requisite to add clearness to sincerity and to be thoroughly inform'd of that wherein we undertake to instruct others I have therefore considered interrogated and penetrated as far as it was possible and to render my self more capable of doing it I carefully read over before my arrival at Siam several Antient and Modern Relations of divers Countreys of the East So that in my opinion this preparation has supplied the defect of a longer residence and has made me to remark and understand in the three Months I was at Siam what I could not perhaps have understood or remark'd in three Years without the assistance and perusal of those Discourses A MAPP of the KINGDOME of SIAM PART I. Of the Country of Siam CHAP. I. The Geographical Description NAvigation has sufficiently made known the Sea Coasts of the Kingdom of Siam and many Authors have described them How much this Kingdom is unknown but they know almost nothing of the Inland Country because the Siameses have not made a Map of their Country or at least know how to keep it secret That which I here present is the work of an European who went up the Menam the principal River of the Country to the Frontiers of the Kingdom but was not skilful enough to give all the Positions with an entire exactness Besides he has not seen all and therefore I thought it necessary to give his Map to Mr. Cassini Director of the Observatory at Paris to correct it by some Memorials which were given me at Siam Nevertheless I know it to be still defective but yet it fails not to give some notices of this Kingdom which were never heard of and of being more exact in those we already have Its Frontiers extend Northward to the 22d. Degree or thereabouts Its Frontiers Northward and the Road which terminates the Gulph of Siam being almost at the Latitude of 13 degrees and a half it follows that this whole extent of which we hardly have any knowledge runs about 170 Leagues in a direct Line reckoning 20 Leagues to a degree of Latitude after the manner of our Seamen The Siameses do say that the City of Chiamai is fifteen days journey more to the North than the Frontiers of their Kingdom that is to say at most The City of Chiamai and its Lake between sixty and seventy Leagues for they are Journeys by water and against the Stream 'T is about thirty years since their King as they report took this City and abandon'd it after having carried away all the People and it has been since repeopled by the King of Ava to whom Pegu does at present render Obedience But the Siameses which were at that expedition do not know that famous Lake from whence our Geographers make the River Menam arise and to which according to them this City gives its Names which makes me to think either that it is more distant than our Geographers have conceived or that there is no such Lake It may also happen that this City adjoyning to several Kingdoms and being more subject than another to be ruined by War has not always been rebuilt in the same place And this is not difficult to imagine of the Cities which are built only with wood as all in these Countreys are and which in their destruction leave not any Ruines nor Foundations However it may be doubted whether the Menam springs from a Lake by reason it is so small at its entrance into the Kingdom of Siam that for about fifty Leagues it carries only little Boats capable of holding no more than four or five Persons at most The Kingdom of Siam is bounded from the East to the North by high Mountains which separate it from the Kingdom of Laos The Country of Siam is only a Valley and on the North and West by others which divide it from the Kingdoms of Pegu and Ava This double Chain of Mountains inhabited by a few savage and poor but yet free People whose Life is innocent leaves between them a great Valley containing in some places between fourscore and an hundred Leagues in bredth and is watered from the City of Chiamai to the Sea that is to say from the North to the South with an excellent River which the Siameses call Me-nam or mother-Mother-water to signifie a great water which being encreased by the Brooks and Rivers it receives on every side from the Mountains I have mentioned discharges it self at last into the Gulph of Siam by three months the most navigable of which is that toward the East Cities seated on the River On this River and about seven Miles from the Sea is seated the City of Bancok and I shall transiently declare that the Siameses have very few habitations on their Coasts which are not far distant from thence but are almost all seated on Rivers navigable enough to afford them the Commerce of the Sea As to the names of most of these places which for this reason may be called Maritime they are disguised by Foreigners Thus the City of Bancok is called Fon in Siamese it not being known from whence the name of Bancok is derived altho there be several Siamese Names that begin with the word Ban which signifies a Village The Gardens of Bancok The Gardens which are in the Territory of Bancok for the space of four Leagues in ascending towards the City of Siam to a place named Talacoan do supply this City with the Nourishment which the Natives of the Country love best I mean a great quantity of Fruit. Other Cities on the Menam The other principal places which the Menam waters are Me-Tac the first City of the Kingdom to the North North-West and then successively Tian-Tong Campeng pet or Campeng simple which some do pronounce Campingue Laconcevan Tchainat Siam Talacoan Talaqueou and Bancok Between the two Cities of Tchainat and Siam and at a distance which the Maeanders of the River do render almost equal from each other the River leaves the City of Louvo a little to the East at the 14 d. 42 m. 32 S. of Latitude according to the observations which the Jesuites have published The King of Siam does there spend the greatest part of the year the more commodiously to enjoy the diversion of Hunting but Louvo would not be habitable were it not for a channel cut from the River to water it The City of Me-Tac renders obedience to an Hereditary Lord who they say is a Vassal to the King of Siam whom some call Paya-Tac
this Author who seems to rely too much on his memory we may believe what he says that the Elephants of the King of Pegu who then besieged the City of Siam did so nearly approach the Walls as with their Trunks to beat down the Palisado's which the Siameses had there placed to cover themselves It s Latitude according to Father Thomas the Jesuit is 14 d. 20 m. 40 S. and its Longitude 120 d. 30 m. It has almost the figure of a Purse the mouth of which is to the East and the bottom to the West The River meets it at the North by several Channels which run into that which environs it and leaves it on the South by separating itself again into several streams The King's Palace stands to the North on the Canal which embraces the City and by turning to the East there is a Causey by which alone as by an Isthmus People may go out of the City without crossing the water The City is spacious considering the Circuit of its Walls which as I have said incloses the whole Isle but scarce the sixth part thereof is inhabited and that to the South-East only The rest lies desart where the Temples only stand 'T is true that the Suburbs which are possessed by strangers do considerably increase the number of the People The streets thereof are large and strait and in some places planted with Trees and paved with Bricks laid edgewise The Houses are low and built with Wood at least those belonging to the Natives who for these Reasons are exposed to all the Inconveniences of the excessive heat Most of the streets are watered with strait Canals which have made Siam to be compar'd to Venice and on which are a great many small Bridges of Hurdles and some of Brick very high and ugly Its Names The Name of Siam is unknown to the Siamese 'T is one of those words which the Portugues of the Indies do use and of which it is very difficult to discover the Original They use it as the Name of the Nation and not of the Kingdom And the Names of Pegu Lao Mogul and most of the Names which we give to the Indian Kingdoms are likewise National Names so that to speak rightly we must say the King of the Peguins Laos Moguls Siams as our Ancestors said the King of the Franc's In a word those that understand Portuguese do well know that according to their Orthography Siam and Siaom are the same thing and that by the Similitude of our Language to theirs we ought to say the Sions and not the Siams so when they write in Latin they call them Siones The true Name of the Siameses signifies Francs A Map of the Citty of SIAM A. The Citty B. The Pallace C. The Port D. the Arsenall for the Ships E. the Arsenall for the Ballons Galleys F. The Street of the Bazars G. The Seminary H. The Portuguese Iacobins I. The Portuguese Iesuites K. The Dutch Factory L. The Inclosur where the Elephants are taken M. A House begun for the French Ambassadors 800 French Toises The Bambou Tree The Arvore de Raiz A Map of Bancock A Vessell of filigran A Plaugh The Arc Kier As for the City of Siam the Siameses do call it Si-yo-thi-ya the o of the Syllable yo being closer than our Dipthong an Sometimes also they call it Crung the-papra maha nacon But most of these words are difficult to understand because they are taken from this Baly Language which I have already declared to be the learned Language of the Siameses and which they themselves do not always perfectly understand I have already remark'd what I know concerning the word Pra that of Maha signifies Great Thus in speaking of their King they stile him Pra Maha Crassat and the word Crassat according to their report signifies living and because the Portugues have thought that Pra signifies God they imagin that the Siameses called their King The great living God From Si-yo-thi ya the Siamese Name of the City of Siam Foreigners have made Judia and Odiaa by which it appears that Vincent le Blanc and some other Authors do very ill distinguish Odiaa from Siam In a word the Siameses of whom I treat do call themselves Tai Noe Two different People called Siameses little Siams There are others as I was informed altogether savage which are called Tai yai great Siams and which do live in the Northern Mountains In several Relations of these Countries I find a Kingdom of Siammon or Siami but all do not agree that the People thereof are savage In fine the Mountains which lie on the common Frontiers of Ava Other Mountains and other Frontiers Pegu and Siam gradually decreasing as they extend to the South do form the Peninsula of India extra Gangem which terminating at the City of Sincapura separates the Gulphs of Siam and Bengala and which with the Island of Sumatra forms the famous Strait of Malaca or Sincapura Several Rivers do fall from every part of these Mountains into the Gulphs of Siam and Bengala and render these Coasts habitable The other Mountains which rise between the Kingdom of Siam and Laos and extend themselves also towards the South do run gradually decreasing till they terminate at the Cape of Camboya the most Eastern of all those in the Continent of Asia toward the South 'T is about the Latitude of this Cape that the Gulph of Siam begins and the Kingdom of this Name extends a great way towards the South in form of an Horseshoe on either side of the Gulph viz. along the Eastern Coast to the River Chantebon where the Kingdom of Camboya begins and opposite thereunto viz. in the Peninsula extra Gangem which lies on the West of the Gulph of Siam it extends to Queda and Patana the Territories of the Malayans of which Malaca was formerly the Metropolis After this manner it runs about 200 Leagues on the side toward the Gulph of Siam and 180 or thereabouts on the Gulph of Bengal The Coasts of Siam an advantageous situation which opens unto the Natives of the Countrey the Navigation on all these vast Eastern Seas Add that as Nature has refus'd all manner of Ports and Roads to the Coast of Coromandel which forms the Gulph of Bengal to the West it has therewith enrich'd that of Siam which is opposite to it and which is on the East of the same Gulph A great number of Isles do cover it Isles of Siam in the Gulph of Bengal and render it almost everywhere a safe Harbor for Ships besides that most of these Isles have very excellent Ports and abundance of fresh water and wood an invitation for new Colonies The King of Siam affects to be called Lord thereof altho' his People who are very thin in the firm Land have never inhabited them and he has not strength enough at Sea to prohibit or hinder the enterance thereof to strangers The City of Merguy
Lizards and most Insects Nature doubtless framing their Appetite to things the Digestion whereof is more easie to them And it may be that all these things have not such an ill taste as we imagine Whatever smells ill is not always ill tasted Navarette in Pag. 45. Tom. I. of his Historical Discourses of China relates that he at first exceedingly detested the Brooded Eggs of a Bird which he calls Tabon but that when he eat thereof he found them excellent 'T is certain that at Siam new-laid Eggs are very unwholsom we do here eat Vipers we draw not certain Birds to eat them and sometimes Venison a little over-hunted is best relisht A Siamese makes a very good Meal with a pound of Rice a day What a Siamese expends a day in Food which amounts not to more than a Farthing and with a little dry or salt Fish which costs not more The Arak or Rice Brandy is not worth above two Sols for that quantity which amounts to a Parisian Pint after which it is no wonder if the Siameses are not in any great care about their Subsistence and if in the Evening there is heard nothing but Singing in their Houses Their Sauces are plain a little Water with some Spices Garlic Chibols Their Sauces or some sweet Herb as Baulm They do very much esteem a liquid Sauce like Mustard which is only Cray-Fish corrupted because they are ill salted they call it Capi. They gave Mr. Ceberet some Pots thereof which had no bad Smell They yellow their Children That which serves them instead of Saffron is a root which has the Taste and Colour thereof when it is dry and reduc'd to Powder the Plant thereof is known under the Name of Crocus Indicus They account it very wholesom for their Children to yellow the Body and Face therewith So that in the streets there are only seen Children with a tawny Complexion What Oil they eat They have neither Nuts nor Olives nor any eating Oil save that which they extract from the Fruit of Coco which tho always a little bitter yet is good when it is fresh drawn but it presently becomes very strong insomuch that it is not eatable by such as are not accustomed to eat bad Oil. The Taste is always made and it happened at my return from a very long Voyage where I met with no extraordinary Oil that I found the excellent Oil of Paris insipid and tasteless How Relations must be understood with reference to him that writes them Wherefore I cannot forbear making a remark very necessary truly to understand the Relations of Foreign Countries 'T is that the words good excellent magnificent great bad ugly simple and small equivocal in themselves must always be understood with reference to the Phantasie of the Author of the Relation if otherwise he does not particularly explain what he writes As for example if a Dutch Factor or a Portuguese Monk do exaggerate the Magnificence and good Entertainment of the East if the least House of the King of China's Palace appears unto them worthy of an European King it must be supposed that this is true in reference to the Court of Portugal And yet some may doubt hereof seeing that in truth the Apartments of the Palace of China are no other than Wood varnished on the inside and outside which is rather agreeable and neat than magnificent Thus because it would not be just to contemn every thing that resembles not what we do now see in the Court of France and which was never seen before this great and glorious Reign I have endeavour'd to express nothing in ambiguous Terms but to describe exactly what I have seen thereby to prevent the surprising any person by my particular Fancy and to the end that every one make as true a Judgment of what I write as if he had performed the Voyage that I have done Another Reflection on the same Subject Another defect in Relations is the Translation of the Foreign Words As for instance amongst the King of China's Wives there is only one that hath the Honours and Title of Queen the rest are under her although they be all legitimate that is to say permitted by the Laws of the Country They are called verbatim the Ladies of the Palace and at Siam they have the same Name The Children of these Ladies honour not their natural Mothers as the Chineses are obliged theirs but they render this Respect and give the Name of Mother to the Queen as if the second Wives bore Children only for the principal Wife And this is also the Custom at China in the Houses of private Persons who have several Wives to the end that there may be an entire subordination which maintains Peace there as much as possible And that the Children be not permitted to dispute amongst them the merit of their Mothers We read almost the same thing of Sarah who gave Hagar her Bond-maid unto Abraham to have as she said some Children by her Slave being past Child-bearing her self Some other Wives of the Patriarchs practised the same and it is evident that being the principal Wives every one was thought the Mother of all her Husband's Children But to return to what I have spoken concerning the danger of being deceived by the Translations of the Foreign words in Relations who sees not the Equivocation of these words the Ladies of the Palace put into the mouth of a Chinese or Portuguese or in the mouth of a French-man who translates a Portuguese Relation of China The same Equivocations are found in the names of Offices Because that all Courts and all Governments do not resemble All Functions are not found every where and the same are not every where attributed to the same Offices that is to say to Offices of the same name besides that such a Function will be great and considerable in one Country which may be inconsiderable in another As for example the Spaniards have Marshals which they at first design'd in imitation of the Marshals of France and yet an Ambassador would find himself exceedingly mistaken if being accompanied to the Audience of the King of Spain by a Marshal of Spain he should think himself as highly honoured as if he were accompany'd to the King's Audience by a Marshal of France Now the more remote the Courts are the greater is the defect when the same Words and the same Idea's are transferred from the one to the other At Siam it is a very honourable Employment to empty the King's Close-stool which is always emptied in a place appointed and carefully kept for this purpose it may be out of some superstitious Fear of the Sorceries which they imagine may be perform'd on the Excrements At China all the Splendor and Authority is in the Offices which we call the Long Robe And their Military Officers at least before the Domination of the Tartars consisted only of unfortunate Wretches who were not thought endow'd with Merit
King chances to pass by the Mandarin himself descends upon this Table and there prostrates himself his whole Equipage does likewise follow his example and his Balon stirs not till the King's be out of sight The Balons of the Body which are called Balons of State The Imperials of the Balons of State are all over gilded as well as the Pagayes They are supported by Columns and loaded with several pieces of Sculpture in Pyramids and some have sheds against the Sun In the Balon where the King's Person is there are four Captains or Officers to command the Equipage two before and two behind they sit cross-leg'd and this is the Ornament of the Balons The Swiftness of the Balons Now as these Vessels are very narrow and very proper to cut the water and the Equipage thereof numerous it cannot be imagin'd with what swiftness it carries them even against the Stream and how pleasant a sight it is to behold a great number of Balons to row together in good order The Enterance of the Kings Ambassadors into the River I confess that when the King's Ambassadors entred in the River the Beauty of the Show surpriz'd me The River is of an agreeable breadth and notwithstanding its Maeanders there is always discover'd a very great extent of its Channel the Banks whereof are two Hedge-rows continually green This would be the best Theater in the World for the most sumptuous and magnificent Feasts but no Magnificence appears like a great number of men devoted to serve you There were near three Thousand embarkt in seventy or eighty Balons which made the Train of the Ambassador They rowed in two ranks and left the Balon with the King's Ambassadors in the middle Every one was animated and in motion All eyes were taken up with the diversity and number of the Balons and with the pleasantness of the River's Channel and yet the ears were diverted by a barbarous but agreeable noise of Songs Acclamations and Instruments in the intervals of which the Imagination ceased not to have a sensible taste of the natural silence of the River In the night there was another sort of Beauty by reason that every Balon had its Lanthorn and that a noise which pleases is much more pleasant in the night The ancient Magnificence of the Court of Siam 'T is asserted at Siam that the Court was formerly very magnificent that is to say there was a great number of Lords adorn'd with rich Stuffs and a great many precious Stones and always attended with an hundred or two hundred Slaves and with a considerable number of Elephants but this is gone ever since the Father of the present King cut off almost all the most considerable and consequently the most formidable Siameses as well those who had served him in his Revolt as those which had opposed him At present three or four Lords only have permission to use those Chairs or Sedans which I have spoken of The Palankin which is a kind of Bed that hangs almost to the ground from a great Bar which men carry on their Shoulders is permitted to sick persons and some diseased old men for 't is a Carriage wherein they can only lie along But though the Siameses may not freely use these sorts of Conveniences the Europeans which are at Siam have more permission herein Vmbrella's The use of Vmbrella's in Siamese Roum is also a Favour which the King of Siam grants not to all his Subjects although the Umbrella be permitted to all the Europeans Those which are like to ours that is to say which have but one round is the least honorable and most of the Mandarins have thereof Those that have more rounds about the same handle as if they were several Vmbrella's fix'd one upon another are for the King alone Those which the Siameses do call Clot which only have one round but from which do hang two or three painted Cloaths like so many Hangings one lower than the other are those which the King of Siam gives to the Sancrats or Superiors of the Talapoins Those which he gave to the King's Ambassadors were of this last sort and with three Cloaths You may see the figure thereof in that of the Balons of the King's Ambassadors The Umbrella of the Talapoins and the Origine of the word Talapoin The Talapoins have Vmbrella's in the form of a Screen which they carry in their hand They are of a kind of Palmito leaf cut round and folded and the folds thereof are tyed with a thread near the stem and the stem which they make crooked like an S is the handle thereof In Siamese they call them Talapat and 't is probable that from hence comes the name of Talapoi or Talapoin which is in use amongst Foreigners only and which is unknown to the Talapoins themselves whose Siamese name is Tchaou-cou The Elephant is the carriage of every one that can take one by hunting The Elephant and Boat permitted to all or purchase one but the Boat is the more universal carriage no person can travel without one by reason of the annual Inundation of the Country Whilst the King of Siam is in his Metropolis When and how the King of Siam shews himself the ancient custom of his Court requires that he show himself to the people five or six days of the year only and that he does it with Pomp. Heretofore the Kings his Predecessors did first break up the ground every year till they left this Function to the Oc-ya-kaou and it was attended with great Splendor They also went out another day to perform on the water another Ceremony which was not less superstitious nor less splendid 'T was to conjure the River to return into its Channel when the Agriculture requir'd it and when the Wind inclining to the North assured the return of fair weather The present King was the first that dispenc'd with this troublesom work and it is several years since it seem'd abolished because say they that the last time he perform'd it he had the disgrace of being surpriz'd with rain altho his Astrologers had promised him a fair day Ferdinand Mendez Pinto relates that in his time the King of Siam used to shew himself one day in a year upon his white Elephant to ride through nine streets of the City and to extend great Liberalities to the People This Ceremony if it has been in use is now abolished The King of Siam never mounts the white Elephant and the reason which they give is that the white Elephant is as great a Lord as himself because he has a King's soul like him Thus this Prince shews himself in his Metropolis no more than twice a year at the beginning of the sixth and twelfth month to go and present Alms of Silver yellow Pagnes and fruits to the Talapoins of the Principal Pagods On these days which the Siameses do call Van pra a holy or excellent day he goes upon an
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
their Sommona-Codam is plac'd therein This Festival is likewise accompany'd with races of Oxen Wrestling and Boxing and several other Diversions as of Wrestlers and Men that fight with their Elbow and Fist In Boxing they guard their Hand with three or four rounds of Cord instead of the Copper Rings which those of Laos do use in such Combats The Running of Oxen is perform'd in this manner A Race of Oxen. They mark out a Plat of 500 Fathom in length and two in breadth with four Trunks which are planted at the four Corners to serve as Boundaries and it is round these Limits that the Coutse is run In the middle of this place they erect a Scaffold for the Judges and the more precisely to mark out the middle which is the place from whence the Oxen were to start they do plant a very high Post against the Scaffold Sometimes 't is only a single Ox which runs against another the one and the other being guided by two Men running a foot which do hold the Reins or rather the String put into their Noses the one on the one side and the other on the other side and other Men are posted at certain distances to ease those which run But most frequently it is a Yoke of Oxen fasten'd to a Plough which runs against another Yoke of Oxen joined to another Plough some Men guide them on the right side and on the left as when it is only a single Ox which runs against another But besides this it is necessary that each Plough be so well sustained in the Air by a Man running that it never touch the ground for fear it retard the Animals that draw it and these Men which thus support the Ploughs are more frequently reliev'd than the others Now tho' the Ploughs run both after the same manner turning always to the right round the space which I have described they set not out from the same place The one starts at one side of the Scaffold and the other at the other to run reciprocally one after the other Thus at the beginning of their Course they look from opposite places and they are distant one from the other half a Circle or half the space over which they were to run Yet they run after the same manner as I have said turning several times round the four Boundaries which I have mentioned till the one overtakes the other The Spectators are nevertheless all round yet is it not necessary to have Bars to hinder from approaching too near These Courses are sometimes the subjects of Bettings and the Lords do breed and train up small but well-proportion'd Oxen for this Exercise and instead of Oxen they do likewise make use of Buffalo's A Race of Balons I know not whether I ought to rank amongst the Shows the Diversion which was given us of a Race of Balons for in respect of the Siameses it is rather a Sport than a Show They chuse two Balons the most equal in all things as is possible and they divide themselves into two Parties to bett Then the Captains do beat a precipitate measure not only by knocking with the end of a long Bambou which they have in their hands but by their Cryes and the Agitation of their whole Body The Crew of Rowers excites itself also by several redoubled Acclamations and the Spectator which betts hollows also and is in no less motion than if he really rowed Oftentimes they commit not to the Captains the care of animating the Rowers but two of the Bettors do execute this Office themselves The excessive love of Gaming The Siameses love Gaming to such an Excess as to ruine themselves and lose their Liberty or that of their Children for in this Country whoever has not wherewith to satisfy his Creditor sells his Children to discharge the Debt and if this satisfies not he himself becomes a Slave The Play which they love best is Tick-Tack which they call Saca and which they have learnt perhaps from the Portuguese for they play it like them and us They play not at Cards and their other hazardous Sports I know not but they play at Chesse after our and the Chinese way At the end of this Work I will insert the Game of Chesse of the Chineses The Siameses love to smoke Tobacco Tobacco-Smoke for they take none in Snush is also one of their greatest pleasures and the Women even the most considerable are entirely addicted thereunto They have Tobacco from Manille China and Siam and tho' these sorts of Tobacco are very strong the Siameses do smoke it without any weakning it but the Chineses and Moors do draw the Smoke through water to diminish the strength thereof The method of the Chineses is to take a little water into their mouth and then proceed to fill their mouth with Tobacco-Smoke and afterwards they spit out the water and the Smoke at the same time The Moors make use of a singular Instrument the Description and Figure of which you will find at the end of this Work The common life of a Siamese Such are the Diversions of the Siameses to which may be added the Domestic They love their Wives and Children exceedingly and it appears that they are greatly beloved by them Whilst the Men acquit themselves of the six months work which they every one yearly owe to the Prince it belongs to their Wife their Mother or their Children to maintain them And when they have satisfy'd the Service of their King and they are return'd home the generality know not unto what business to apply themselves being little accustomed to any particular Profession by reason the Prince employs them indifferently to all as it pleaseth him Hence it may be judged how lazy the ordinary life of a Siamese is He works not at all when he works not for his King he walks not abroad he hunts not he does nothing almost but continue sitting or lying eating playing smoking and sleeping His Wife will wake him at 7 a clock in the morning and will serve him with Rice and Fish He will fall asleep again hereupon and at Noon he will eat again and will sup at the end of the day Between these two last Meals will be his day Conversation or Play will spend all the rest The Women plough the Land they sell and buy in the Cities But it is time to speak of the Affairs and serious Occupations of the Siameses that is to say of their Marriages of the Education they give to their Children of the Studies and Professions to which they apply themselves CHAP. VII Concerning the Marriage and Divorce of the Siameses 'T Is not the Custom in this Country to permit unto Maids the Conversation of young men The Mothers chastise them when they surprize them so The care they have of keeping their Daughters but the Girls forbear not to get out when they can and this is not impossible towards the Evening They are capable
consists in Extorsions because that in this there is no Justice for the weak All the Officers do hold a correspondence in pillaging and the Corruption is greatest in those from whence the Remedy ought to come The Trade of Presents is publick the least Officers do give unto the greatest under a Title of Respect and a Judge is not there punished for having received Presents if otherwise he be not convicted of Injustice which is not very easie to do The Form of the Oath of Fidelity consists in swallowing the water The Oath of Fidelity over which the Talapoins do pronounce some Imprecations against him who is to drink it in case he fails in the Fidelity which he owes to his King This Prince dispenses not with this Oath to any persons that engage themselves in his Service of what Religion or Nation soever The Publick Law of Siam is written in three Volumes The Publick Law of Siam is written The first is called Pra Tam Ra and contains the Names Functions and Prerogatives of all the Offices The second is intituled Pra Tam Non and is a Collection of the Constitutions of the Ancient Kings and the third is the Pra Rayja Cammanot wherein are the Constitutions of the now Regent King's Father Nothing would have been more necessary than a faithful extract of these three Volumes The difficulty of procuring the Books thereof rightly to make known the Constitution of the Kingdom of Siam but so far was I from being able to get a Translation that I could not procure a Copy thereof in Siamese It would have been necessary upon this account to continue longer at Siam and with less business This is therefore what I could learn certainly about this matter without the assistance of those Books and in a Country where every one is afraid to speak The greatest token of Servitude of the Siameses is that they dare not to open their mouth about any thing that relates to their Country CHAP. IV. Concerning the Offices of Judicatory The Division of the Kingdom of Siam by Provinces THE Kingdom of Siam is divided into the upper and lower The upper lies towards the North seeing that the River descends from thence and contains seven Provinces which are named by their Chief Cities Porselouc Sanquelouc Lacontai Campeng-pet Coconrepina Pechebonne and Pitchai At Porselouc do immediately arise ten Jurisdictions at Sanquelouc eight at Lacontai seven at Campeng-pet ten at Coconrepina five at Pechebonne two and at Pitchai seven And besides this there are in the upper Siam one and twenty other Jurisdictions to which no other Jurisdiction resorts but which do resort to the Court and are as so many little Provinces In the lower Siam that is to say in the South part of the Kingdom they reckon the Provinces of Jor Patana Ligor Tenasserim Chantebonne Petelong or Bordelong and Tchiai On Jor do immediately depend seven Jurisdictions on Patana eight on Ligor twenty on Tenasserim twelve on Chantebonne seven on Petelong eight and on Tchiai two And besides this there are likewise in the lower Siam thirteen small Jurisdictions which are as so many particular Provinces which resort only to the Court and to which no other Jurisdiction resorts The City of Siam has its Province apart in the heart of the State between the upper and lower Siam The Governor is the Judge The whole Tribunal of Judicature consists properly only in a single Officer seeing that it is the Chief or President only that has the deliberate voice and that all the other Officers have only a consultative voice according to the Custom received also at China and in the other Neighbouring States But the most important prerogative of the President is to be the Governour of his whole Jurisdiction and to command even the Garrisons if there be any unless the Prince hath otherwise disposed thereof by an express order So that as in other places these Offices are hereditary it is no difficult matter for some of these Governors and especially the most powerful and for the most remote from Court to withdraw themselves wholly or in part from the Royal Authority Jor belongs no more to the Kingdom of of Siam Thus the Governor of Jor renders Obedience no longer and the Portugueses give him the Title of King And it may be he never intends to obey unless the Kingdom of Siam should extend it self as Relations declare to the whole Peninsula extra Gangem Jor is the most Southern City thereof seated on a River which has its Mouth at the Cape of Sincapura and which forms a very excellent Port. Nor Patana The People of Patana live like those of Achem in the Isle of Sumatra under the Domination of a Woman whom they always elect in the same Family and always old to the end that she may have no occasion to marry and in the name of whom the most trusty persons do rule The Portuguese have likewise given her the Title of Queen and for Tribute she sends to the King of Siam every three Years two small Trees the one of Gold the other of Silver and both loaded with Flowers and Fruits but she owes not any assistance to this Prince in his Wars Whether these Gold and Silver Trees are a real Homage or only a Respect to maintain the liberty of Commerce as the King of Siam sends Presents every three Years to the King of China in consideration of Trade only is what I cannot alledge but as the King of China honours himself with these sorts of Presents and takes them for a kind of Homage it may well be that the King of Siam does not less value himself on the Presents he receives from the Queen of Patana altho' she be not perhaps his Vassal The Siameses do call an Hereditary Governor Tchaou-Meuang The Governor is Lord. Tchaou signifies Lord and Meuang a City or Province and sometimes a Kingdom The Kings of Siam have ruin'd and destroy'd the most potent Tchaou-Meuang as much as they could and have substituted in their place some Triennial Governors by Commission These Commission-Governors are called Pouran and Pou signifies a Person Besides the Presents which the Tchaou-Meuang may receive as I have declar'd The Profits or Rights of the Tchaou-Meuang his other legal Rights are First Equally to share with the King the Rents that the arable Lands do yield which they call Naa that is to say Fields and according to the ancient Law these Rents are a Mayon or quarter part of a Tical for forty Fathom or two hundred Foot square 2dly The Tchaou-Meuang has the profit of all Confiscations of all the Penalties to the Exchequer and ten per Cent. of all the Fines to the Party The Confiscations are fixed by Law according to the Cases and are not always the whole Estate not even in case of sentence of Death but sometimes also they extend to the Body not only of the Person condemn'd but of
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
they gild them but the Wood of their Coffins is not so precious as at China because they are not so rich as the Chineses Out of a respect they place the Coffin on some high thing and generally on a Bedsted which hath feet and so long as the body is kept at the house whether to expect the Head of the Family if he is absent or to prepare the Funeral Solemnities they burn Perfumes and Tapers by the Coffin and every night the Talapoins come to sing in the Balie Language in the Chamber where it is exposed they do range themselves along the Walls They entertain them and give them some Money and what they sing are some moral Subjects upon Death with the Road to Heaven which they pretend to show to the Soul of the deceased Mean while the Family chuses a place in the Field How they burn the bodies there to carry and burn the body This place is generally a Spot near the Temple which the Deceased or some of his Ancestors had built or near some other Temple if there is none peculiar to the Family of the deceased This space is inclosed with a square inclosure made of Bambou with some kind of Architecture almost of the same work as the Arbours and Bowers of our Gardens and adorned with those Papers Painted or Gilded which they cut to represent the Houses Moveables and Domestic and Savage Animals In the middle of this Inclosure the Pile composed entirely or partly of Odoriferous wood as are the white or yellow Saunders and Lignum Aloes and this according to the Wealth and Dignity of the deceased But the greatest honor of the Funeral consists in erecting the Pile not in eagerly heaping up Wood but in great Scaffolds on which they do put Earth and then Wood. At the Burial of the late Queen who died seven or eight years ago the Scaffold was higher than ever was yet seen in this Country and a Machine was desired of the Europeans to raise the Coffin decently to that heighth When it is resolved to carry the Corps to the Pile which is always done in the Morning the Parents and Friends do carry it with the sound of a great many Instruments The Body marches first then the Family of the deceased The Train Men and Women all cloathed in White their Head covered with a White Vail and lamenting exceedingly and in fine the rest of the Friends and Relations If the Train can go all the way by water it is so done In very magnificent Funerals they carry great Machines of Bambou covered with painted and gilded Paper which represents not only Palaces Moveables Elephants and other common Animals but some hideous Monsters some of which resemble the humane Figure and which the Christians take for the Figures of Devils They burn not the Coffin but they take out the body which they leave on the Pile and the Talapoins of the Convent near which the body is burnt do sing for a quarter of an hour and then retire to appear no more Then begin the shows of the Cone and of the Rabam which are at the same time and all the day long but on different Theaters The Talapoins think not that they can be present thereat without Sin and these Shows are not exhibited at Funerals upon any religious Account but only to render them more magnificent To the Ceremony they add a festival Air and yet the Relations of the deceased forbear not to make great Lamentations and to shed many Tears but they hire no Mourners as some have assured me About Noon the Tapacaou or Servant of the Talapoins sets fire to the Pile The Servant of the Talapoins lights the Funeral Pile which generally burns for two hours The Fire never consumes the body it only roasts it and oftentimes very ill but it is always reputed for the Honor of the deceased that he has been wholly consumed in an eminent place and that there remains only his Ashes If it is the Body of a Prince of the Blood or of a Lord whom the King has loved the King himself sets fire to the Pile without stirring out of his Palace He le ts go a lighted Torch along a Rope which is extended from one of the Windows of the Palace to the Pile As to the cut Papers which are naturally designed for the Flames the Talapoins do frequently secure them and seize them to lend them to other Funerals and the Family of the deceased permits them to do it In which it appears that they have forgot the reason why the neighbouring Nations dispence not from burning such Papers effectually and in general it may be asserted that there are no Persons in the world which do ignore their own Religion so much as the Talapoins It is very difficult say some to find any one amongst them that knows any thing It is necessary to seek their Opinions in the Balie Books which they keep and which they study very little Alms at Funerals The Family of the deceased entertains the Train and for three days it bestows Alms viz. On the day that the body is burnt to the Talapoins which have sung over the body the next day to their whole Convent and the third day to their Temple Funerals redoubled This is what is practised at the Funerals of the Siameses to which it is requisite only to add that they imbellish the Show with a great many Fire-works and that if the Funerals are for a man of great consequence they last with the same Shows for three days Bodies dug up to receive greater Funeral Honors It sometimes also happens that a Person of great Quality causes the body of his Father to be digged up again though a long time dead to make him a pompous Funeral if when he died they made him not such a one as was worthy of the present Elevation of the Son This participates of the Customs of the Chineses who communicate as much as they can to their dead Relations the Honors to which they arrive Thus when a man not born a Kings Son arrives at the Crown of China he will with certain Ceremonies cause the Title of King to be given to his deceased Father What the fire consumes not is buried under Pyramids and how the Siameses do call these Pyramids After the body of a Siamese has been burnt as I have said the whole Show is ended they shut up the remains of his Body in the Coffin without any Order and this depositum is laid under one of those Pyramids wherewith they encompass their Temples Sometimes also they bury precious Stones and other Riches with the body because that it is to put them in a place which Religion renders inviolable Some there are who say that they cast the Ashes of their Kings into the River and I have read of the Peguins that they make a Paste of the Ashes of their Kings with Milk and that they bury it at the
betide him and the fortune that a Son would have at whose Nativity there had appeared so many Wonders They all assur'd him that he had great reason to rejoyce seeing that if his Son did continue in the World he would be Emperor of the whole Earth or that if he turned Talapoin by abandoning the Pleasures of the Age he would arrive at the Nireupan It is necessary to know that this Emperor had seven sorts of things which were so peculiar to him that there was none besides him that had them The first was a Glass-bowl which he made use of to rid himself of his Enemies by throwing it against those whom he would kill which being let go went to cut off the Enemies head and then return'd of it self The second were Elephants and Horses of an extraordinary goodness and beauty which did fly with the same facility as they walked The third was a piece of Glass by the means of which he could have as much Gold and Silver as he pleased for to this end he needed only to throw it into the Air and of the heighth that it went there would grow a Pillar of Gold or Silver The fourth was a Lady come from the North of a marvellous Beauty who had a great glass Pot sustained by three Columns of the same then when she would boil any Rice she needed only to put never so little Rice therein and the Fire would kindle of it self and extinguished also of it self when the Rice was boiled the Rice multiplied so exceedingly in the boiling that it would feed five hundred men and more The fifth was a man who took care of the House and who had Eyes so penetrating that he did see Gold Silver and Precious Stones in the Bowels of the Earth The sixth was a great Mandarin of an extraordinary Strength and Valour The last was that he had a Thousand Children by one Queen which indeed did not all come out of her Womb. One alone came out thence and the rest were engendered of the Water Blood and whatever comes out at the Delivery Every one of these Children in particular being grown up was capable of subduing and vanquishing all the Enemies which their Father could have Now there was one of the Soothsayers who taking the Father aside told him that assuredly his Son would abandon the World would quit the Kingdom and would consecrate himself to Repentance by turning Talapoin to be able by his good works to arrive at the Nireupan His Relations to the Number of Ten Thousand understanding by the Answer of the Soothsayer that the Universal Demesne of this whole World or the Nireupan were ascertained to this young Prince resolv'd amongst themselves every one to give him when he should be a little advanced in years one of their Sons to make up his Train and so they did When therefore this Prince after the Repentance of some seven years which he performed in the Woods was become worthy of the Nireupan a great many of these young men whom we mentioned which were of his Retinue turn'd Talapoins with him but amongst this great Company there were six who though they were his Relations and in his Train would not yet follow him We will recite the Names thereof by reason that in the sequel we shall speak only of them The first is called Pattia the second Anourout the third Aanon the fourth Packou the fifth Quamila the sixth * The Siameses report that Thevetat was the Brother of Sommona-Codom by this History he only is his Relation Thevetat and it is of this last that we wrire the History One day the Fathers of these six young Princes being accidentally met together after having discoursed a long time about several indifferent things one of them observed to the rest that not any of their Sons had followed the Prince to turn Talapoin and they said amongst themselves is it because that not any of our Children will turn Talapoins that we shall upon this account cease to be his Relations Hereupon therefore the Father of Anourout one of these six young Princes who was the Successor of Taousoutout said to his Son that though he was of Royal Blood yet if Sommona-Codom would receive him into his Company as a Talapoin he would not hinder him though some Persons of his Quality would not follow this Example Prince Anourout being accustomed to his Pleasures and to have whatever he desired understood not what this word of refusal No did mean One day as these six young Princes diverted themselves at Bowls and played for Confects for a Collation Anourout having lost sent a Man to his Mother to intreat her to send him some Confects which she did having eaten them they played for a second Collation then a third and a fourth and his Mother sent him some Confects till all were gone But as Anourout still sent to have more his Mother then told the Servant No there are no more Which being related to the Son and the Son not understanding what these words No there are no more did signify having never heard them spoken thought that his Mother meant that she had yet others more excellent the name of which must be these words No there are no more He therefore sent back his Servant to his Mother desiring her to send him some of the Confects No there are no more his Mother perceiving hereby that her Son understood not these words No there are no more resolved to explain them to him She took a great empty Dish covered it with another and gave it to the Servant to carry to her Son But then the Genij of the City Koubilepat reflecting on all that had passed between Prince Anourout and his Mother and knowing that the Prince understood not these words No there are no more because that formerly in another Generation he had Charitably given to the Talapoins his Portion of Rice and had demanded and desired that in process of time when he should come to revive again in this World he might not understand what these words No there are no more did mean neither did he understand or know the place where the Rice did grow they said that it was necessary speedily to assemble themselves with the other Genij These Genij are not invulnerable and their care is to recompence and punish to consult what was proper to be done because that if Anourout found the Plate empty their head as a Punishment would be broke in seven pieces It was therefore resolved that they would fill it with Confects brought from Heaven which they did The Servant who carried the Plate having laid it at the place where these young Princes were diverting themselves Anourout who only expected this to pay his Debt to his Companions ran to the Plate and uncovered it and found it as before full of Confects but so excellent that the whole City was perfumed with their Odor The excellent taste which they found in these Confects diffused it self
which he has made sins He sins in making the Ditch and he sins in not repairing the Evil which he has done A Talapoin who having no work to do tucks up the Tail of his Pagne sins A Talapoin who eats in Gold or Silver sins A Talapoin who sleeps after having eaten instead of performing the Service of Religion sins A Talapoin who after having eaten what has been given him in Charity pleases to say this was good or this was not good sins These Discourses do savor of sensuality and not of Mortification A Talapoin who glorifies himself saying I am the Son of a Mandarin my Mother is rich sins A Talapoin who wears red black green or white Pagnes sins Vnder these four Colors and under the yellow they comprehend all the other Colors except the Colors of Animals which have frequently some particular Names The yellow and fevillemorte for example have one Name blue and green the same the blue they call little green A Talapoin who in Laughing raises his Voice sins A Talapoin who in Preaching changes something in the Baly Text to please sins A Talapoin who gives Charms to render invulnerable sins They believe it possible to render themselves invulnerable against the blows of the Executioners in the Execution of Justice A Talapoin who boasts himself to be more learned than the rest sins A Talapoin who covets Gold or Silver saying when I shall go out of the Convent I will Marry and be at expence sins A Talapoin who grieves to lose his Relations by death sins It is not Lawful for the Creng that is to say the Saints to lament the Cahat or the Seculars A Talapoin who goes out in the Evening to visit other than his Father or his Mother or his Sisters or his Brethren and who unawares contrives to quarrel in the way sins A Talapoin who gives Pagnes of Gold or Silver to other than his Father and Mother Brethren and Sisters sins A Talapoin who runs out of the Convent to seize Pagnes or Gold or Silver which he supposes that some has stol'n sins A Talapoin who sits upon a Carpet interwoven with Gold or Silver which has not been given him but which himself shall have caused to be made sins A Talapoin who sits down without taking a Pagne to sit upon sins This Pagne is called Santat and serves to raise the Talapoin when he is seated Sometimes they make use of a Buffalo's skin folded in several doubles for this purpose A Talapoin who walking in the streets has not buttoned a Button which they have in their habit sins and if going into a Balon he has not unbuttoned this very Button he sins also 'T is the Button of the Angsa I know not the reason of the Precept A Talapoin who seeing a company of Maidens sitting coughs or makes a noise to cause them to turn their head sins A Talapoin who has not the under Pagne edg'd sins and if that which he has on the shoulder consists not of several pieces he sins likewise A Talapoin who puts not his Cloaths on very early in the morning sins A Talapoin who runs in the street as pursued sins A Talapoin who after having washed his Feet makes a noise with his Feet either on Wood or on Stone then goes to the house of a Secular sins This noise is to make the cleanness of his Feet observed A Talapoin who has not learnt certain numbers or calculations sins They are superstitious numbers Father Martinius in his History of China p. 16. informs us that the Chineses are likewise extreamly superstitious on numbers and that amongst other things they think the number 9 the most perfect and most lucky of all and that of 10 the most imperfect and most unlucky For this reason the King of China has for the service of his Palace 9999 Barks and not 10000 and in one of his Provinces he has 999 Stues or Fish-ponds and not 1000. He prefers the lucky and odd number before the even and unlucky When the Chineses salute him it is with nine Prostrations A Talapoin who going into any one's House makes a Noise with his Feet and walks heavily sins In several of these Rules are discovered several things wherein the Siameses do partly place politeness for they require it extreamly in the Talapoins A Talapoin who raises his Pagne to pass the Water sins A Talapoin who raises his Pagne in walking the streets sins A Talapoin who judges of the persons that he sees saying This is handsome that unhandsome sins A Talapoin who boldly looks upon men sins A Talapoin who derides any one or who rails at him sins A Talapoin who sleeps on something high sins They have no other Bedsted than a Hurdle A Talapoin cleaning his Teeth with a certain Wood common to this purpose if the Wood is long or if he cleanses them in discoursing with others he sins A Talapoin who eats and who at the same time wrangles with any one sins A Talapoin who in eating lets Rice fall on one side and on the other sins A Talapoin who after having eaten and washed his Feet picks his Teeth and then whistles with his Lips in presence of the Seculars sins A Talapoin who girds his Pagne under his Navel sins A Talapoin who takes the Cloaths of a dead person which are not yet pierced sins They willingly accept from a man that is a dying A Talapoin who threatens any one to bind him or to have him put to the Cangue or to be buffeted or who threatens him with any other punishment or to inform the King or some great man against him that Talapoin who does thus to make himself feared sins A Talapoin who going any where resolves not to keep the Commandments sins A Talapoin who washes his body and takes the current of the water above another Talapoin more ancient than him sins A Talapoin who forges Iron sins This is not performed without extinguishing the Fire with which the Iron is red A Talapoin who meditating upon the things of Religion doubts of any thing which he does not clearly understand and who out of Vanity will not ask another that might illustrate it sins A Talapoin who knows not the three Seasons of the Year and how he ought to make Conferences at every Season sins I have said in discoursing of the Seasons that the Siameses have only three the Winter the Little Summer and the Great Summer A Talapoin who knows that another Talapoin owes Money to any one and who nevertheless enters into the Temple with this Talapoin sins We have before seen a Rule which prohibits them to borrow of Seculars A Talapoin who is at Enmity or in a rage with another Talapoin and who nevertheless comes with that Talapoin to the Conferences which are made about the things of Religion sins A Talapoin who terrifies any one sins A Talapoin who causes any one to be seized by whom he loses Money if it is less than a Tical sins if
more than a Tical this Talapoin must be cashier'd A Talapoin who gives Medicines to a man who is not sick sins They allow no preventing Medicines A Talapoin who whistles with his mouth to divert himself sins This Precept is general The Talapoins are prohibited to whistle upon any account whatever and to play on any Instrument So that these words with his Mouth to divert himself which are in this Precept are not to extenuate the signification but only because the Siamese tongue loves to express the manner of the things which it expresses The Hebrew tongue is of the same Nature mulier si suscepto semine pepererit filium c. And this Remark may be applied to some other of these Maxims of the Talapoins A Talapoin who crys like Robbers sins A Talapoin who uses to envy any one sins Some would say that according to them an Act of Envy is no Sin but it may be that in this the Translation corresponds not exactly to the natural sense of the Precept A Talapoin who makes a Fire himself or who covers it sins It is not lawful to kindle the Fire because it is to destroy what is burnt nor to cover the Fire for fear of extinguishing it Pythagoras prohibited the striking a Sword into the Flame A Talapoin who eats Fruit out of the Season of this Fruit sins I am perswaded that these words out of Season must be understood before the Season because that it is to kill the seed which is in the Fruit by not permitting it to ripen A Talapoin who eats one of these eight sorts of Flesh viz. of a Man of an Elephant of an Horse of a Serpent of a Tyger of a Crocodile of a Dog or of a Cat sins A Talapoin who goes daily to beg Alms at the same place sins A Talapoin who causes a Bason to be made of Gold or Silver to receive Alms sins They receive Alms in an Iron Plate A Talapoin who sleeps in the same Bed with his Disciples or any other Persons whatever sins A Talapoin who puts his hand into the pot sins 'T is for this reason that the affront of the Spoon in the Pot is the greatest that can be given to a Siamese A Talapoin who pounds Rice himself winnows it and cleanses it or who takes Water to boil it sins To be a Servant to Sin is Sin A Talapoin who in eating besmears himself round the mouth like a little Child sins A Talapoin who begs Alms and takes more than he can eat in one day sins A Talapoin who goes to do his Needs in an open place sins A Talapoin who takes Wood or any thing else to make a Fire in a place where some Animal uses to take his repose sins In the expression of this Precept there is something of the Genius of the Siamese tongue for this Precept does not intimate that the Talapoin may for any reason whatever take Wood in a place where any Animal has used to take his repose nor that he may kindle a Fire with any Wood whatever but the meaning of the Precept is that it is a double Fault to make the Fire and take the Wood in a place where some Animal has chosen his Lodging A Talapoin who going to beg Alms coughs to the end that he may be seen sins He sins likewise as often as he coughs to attract the Eyes of others though it be not in going to crave Alms. A Talapoin who walking in the Streets covers his Head with his Pagne or puts on a Hat as do sometimes the Seculars sins The Talapoins shelter themselves from the Sun with their Fan in form of a Screen which they call Talapat A Talapoin who takes off his Pagne that his body may be seen sins A Talapoin who goes to sing or rather to rehearse at a dead man's House sins if he reflects not upon Death upon the Certainty of all Persons dying upon the Instability of humane things upon the Frailty of Man's Life This is partly the matter of their Song over dead bodies A Talapoin who in eating has not his Legs crossed sins In general they cannot sit otherwise on any occasion A Talapoin who sleeps in a place where others have lain together sins A Talapoin who being with other Seculars and wrangling with them extends his Feet sins Modesty requires that they cross their Legs An Account of the Charges of Justice translated out of the Siamese WHen the Judge receives the first Petition for this 1 Livr The Judge or Tchaou Meuang counts the Lines and the Cancellings and affixes his Seal to the Petition for this 3 Livres The Tchaou-Meuang sends the Petition to one of the Councellors such as he pleases but generally to the Nai of the Parties to examine and to show the habitation of both the securities of the Parties 1 Livre For him that goes to summon the two Parties to come to the Hall of Justice 3 Livres When he must lye a Night on the Road 4 Livres To have the Liberty of giving each a Security for the Judge 16 Livres for the Clerk that writes 3 Livres this is the receiving of the Bail For copying the reasons of the two Parties to present to the Judge to the Clerk 3 Livres to the Judge 3 Livres For the Clerk who goes to hear the Witnesses 3 Livres And if there is a day and a Night on the road 4 Livres In this Country they go to find the Witnesses at their Houses to receive their Depositions and for this purpose there is deputed only one Clerk The Law prescribes neither a Re-examination nor confronting of Witnesses though the Judges cease not sometimes to confront the Accuser with the Accused Reproaches against the Witnesses are not here in use and oftentimes the Accused knows not who are the Witnesses that depose against him If the Parties do examin several Witnesses he takes one Livre for every Witness To copy the Evidences or Testimonies of the two Parties and to make them fit to be presented to the Judge to judge thereof Four Livres as well to the Councellor as to the Clerk For the Governour or Judge to sit in the Hall of Justice five Livres When there are Oc-Pra for Second or Belat and for Councellors to each five Livres To the Oc-Louang three Livres When the Case is judged for him that keeps it three Livres A Collation or Entertainment for the Councellors three Livres When it is order'd and judg'd to consult the Law of the Country which they call Pra Rayja cit di caa ajat caan for the Councellor who reads it whom they call Peng three Livres More a white Cloath of about four Ells more about five pound weight of Rice more a Taper of yellow Wax more five mouthfuls of Arek and Betel more a Hen more two Pots of Arak more some Flowers and a Mat to put under the Books Of which the two Parties do pay as much one as the other Concerning the Measures Weights and Moneys of
the West to the East only by the North. So that the Wind continually veers about the Heaven passing from the North to the East and from the East to the South and from the South to the West and from the West to the North and almost never in the contrary manner Yet in the temperate Zone which is on the South of the Line when we navigated those Seas which are on the East of Africk we experimented in our return from Siam that the Winds went always contrary to this Rule but to assert whether this may be always so requires more than one Proof However it be the Wind goes not so in the Gulph of Siam but it only encompasses the Heaven in a year whereas on our Seas it does it in a small number of days and sometimes in one day When in the Indies the Wind blows round the Compass in a day it is stormy This is what they properly call a Hurricane In the Months of March April and May the South-wind prevails at Siam the Heaven is disorder'd the Rains begin and are very frequent in April In June they are almost continual and the Winds do turn to the West that is to say do blow from the West and the South In July August and September the Winds are in the West or almost West and always accompany'd with Rains the Waters overflowing the Earth to the breadth of nine or ten Miles and above One hundred and fifty to the North of the Gulph During this time and especially towards the middle of July the Tides are so strong that they ascend up to Siam and sometimes to Louvo and they decrease in twenty four hours with that measure that the Water becomes sweet again before Bancock in an hour tho' Bancock be seven Miles from the mouth of the River yet the Water is always somewhat brackish In October the Winds do blow from the West and the North and the Rains do cease In November and December the Winds are North do clear the Heavens and seem so exceedingly to lower the Sea that in few days it receives all the Waters of the Inundation Then the Tides are so insensible that the Water is always sweet two or three Leagues in the River and that at certain hours of the day it is the same for a League in the Road. But at Siam there never is more than an Ebb and Floud in twenty four hours In January the Winds have already turn'd to the East and in February they blow from the East and the South 'T is a considerable Circumstance that at the time when the Winds are in the West or that they blow from the West the Currents of the Gulph do rapidly carry the Ships on the Eastern Coast which is that of Camboya and do hinder them from coming back again and that at the time when the Winds are to the East or that they blow from the East the Currents do run on the Western Coast so that then in Sailing it is necessary to fear being bore away Now this proves in my opinion that the Winds have a great share in the motions of the Sea forasmuch as some have proved that these Currents are only in the upper parts of the Waters and that underneath they have a quite contrary Current because that the upper Waters being continually rowled on the Shore returns underneath towards the Coast from whence it came After the same manner it seems that they are the South-winds which drive on the Flux and maintain it for six Months further up in the River and that they are the North-winds which do hinder it the entrance of the River for the six other Months The Bananier A Bunch of Banana's The Jacquier The Tree which bears the Durions The Potatos-Tree The Ananas The Mango Tree The Coco Tree Three Siamese Alphabets 1 Ko Khò Khó Khò Khoo Khoo-ngo cho chó chò Sò choo yo do to thò thó thoo no â—o po ppò fo ppo mo no ro lo vo So Só Só hò lo 2 Kâ Kà Ki Keú Keû Koù Kû Ké Kê Ka Kaái Ko Kà on Kam Ka Keúy Kaái Kâou Kiou Küon Keuy Keúï Koú̈y Koúi 3 Keòn Keôu Koú̈y Kôï Kouáï Kiaóu Kiá The Sequel of this Alphabet is in the following Plate A Description of the principal Fruits of Siam THE Figs of India which the Siameses do call Clouey-ngouan-tchang Elephant's Trunks have not the taste of our Figs and in my mind they are not so good Thus the Melons of Siam are not true Melons but the Fruit of a Tree known in the Isles of America under the name of Papayer I have not eaten of this Fruit. But to return to the Fig it is of the size and shape of a Sausage It s green Skin which waxes yellow and spotted with black in its maturity is easily separated from its soft and clammy pulp and 't is that which has given it the name of Fig but in the midst of its pulp there is no vacuity nor any of those kernels which do make as it were a little gravel in our Figs when they are a little dry'd It s taste is strong and it has something of sharpness and sweetness both together The Bananas which the Siameses do call Clouey-ngaa-tchang or Elephant's Tooth is almost the same thing as the Fig save that it is greener and longer and that it has Angles and Faces or flat Sides which are re-united point-wise at both ends These Fruits do hang like Nosegays or rather like great Bunches of Grapes from the top of the Trunk of the Trees which bear them The Figs grow hard in the Fire the Bananas which are not altogether so delicate raw do wax soft again do there lose their sweetness and do acquire the taste of our Pippins ripen'd on the Apple Tree The Goyaye in Siamese Louc-Kiac Louc signifies Son Kiac is the name of the Goyavier is about the size of a middling Apple It s Skin is of a grayish green like that of certain Pears under this Skin is a pulp of the consistence of that of the Citron but not so white When it is put into the mouth it savors the Strawberry but this Strawberry taste soon loses itself because it becomes too strong This pulp which exceeds not the thickness of a Crown-piece contains a liquid substance like Broth but grayish and which would not be less pleasant to eat than the pulp if it was not mix'd with an innumerable number of small kernels so hard that it would be difficult to chew them The Jacques in Siamese Ca-noun are of the shape of a great Melon ill rounded Under a grayish Skin fashioned like Chagrin they have a very great number of kernels or stones stones if we consider their magnitude which is almost like a Pigeon's Egg kernels by the thin and smooth wood which incloses them These stones therefore or kernels being broil'd or boil'd differ not from our Chestnuts either in taste or consistence excepting that they are
in my opinion more delicate At one end they stick to a pulp which invelops them all and separates them one from the other It is easily torn off according to the course of its fibres it is yellow juicy clammy and glutinous of a sweet taste and strong smell It is not possible to chew it they only suck it They gave us a Fruit like to Plums and we at the first appearance were deceived It had the pulp and taste of a Medler and sometimes two sometimes three stones but bigger flatter and smoother than the Medler has them This Fruit is called Moussida in Siamese The Ox-heart was so named by reason of its size and shape The Skin thereof is thin and this Fruit is soft because that on the inside it is only a kind of white Cream and of a very agreeable taste The Siameses do call it Mancout The Durion in Siamese Tourrion which is a Fruit very much esteem'd in the Indies appear'd insupportable to me for its ill smell This Fruit is of the size of our Melons cover'd with a prickly Coat like our Chestnuts It has also like the Jacques several stones but as big as Eggs in which is contained what they eat in the inside of which there is also another stone The fewer there is of these stones in a Durion the more pleasant the Fruit is There never is less than three The Mango in Siamese Ma-mouan participates at first of the taste of the Peach and the Apricot toward the end this taste waxes stronger and less agreeable The Mango's are highly esteem'd I have seen some as big as a Child's hand they are flat and oval but pointed at the two ends almost like our Almonds Their Skin is of the consistence of that of our Peaches of colour inclining to yellow but their meat is only a pulp which must be suck'd and which quits not a great flat stone which it envelops I have not seen the Mangoustan which is said to be much better than the Mango's The Siameses have some sharp Fruits which quench the thirst and which upon this account appear'd unto me the most agreeable of all They are small as Plums and have a stone encompast with a white pulp which easily melts in the mouth The Tamarinde is also sharp 'T is a Fruit enclosed in a shell like an Almond and then several of these Fruits are likewise included in a Cod. I preserved some and found the Syrup thereof very pleasant during my return but by little and little it lost its sharpness and there remain'd only the taste of the Pimpernel The Tree which bears it and which is very large has a Leaf resembling Pimpernel From this Country I brought several sorts of liquid Sweet-meats which were come from China to Siam about two years and they ceased not to keep very well to Paris The Syrup especially was very good and had nothing of Candy notwithstanding the heat of the Climats through which it had passed These Sweet-meats had perhaps been made with Sugar-candy whith is the sole Purifier that the Orientals have I refer my self to the Confectioners I speak not of the Sugar-canes wherewith Siam abounds nor of the Pepper because I saw none thereof The King of Siam they say has caused an hundred thousand thereof to be planted 'T is a Plant which needs Props like the Vine and the Pepper hangs thereon also by little Bunches like to those of Currents The Ananas in Siamese Saparot has the meat white and the taste of our Peaches It s meat is mixed with a little wood not a wood which separates as there is in our Nuts but with a wood that adheres thereto and which is only the meat over-hardned and it is at the Center that it begins to grow hard The Ananas is believed unwholsom because that its juice they say corrodes Iron It is yellow when it is ripe and then to smell it without opening it it has the scent of a roasted Apple It s Figure is like a great Pine Apple it has little rindes curiously ranged under which to behold them one would think that the kernels are The Plant which produces it bears it at the top of its stalk which is not three foot high The Ananas keeps directly upon the little end and at the great end there is a tuft of Leaves like little Corn-flags short bent outwards and toothed Sometimes from the body of this Fruit and at the sides there grows like Wens one or two other little Ananas which have also their Tufts Now every Tuft cut and put in the ground may produce another Ananas but every Plant bears only one and bears no more than once The Coco in Siamese Ma-praou is a kind of Filbert but much bigger indeed than a Filbert as may be seen by those Cups of Coco which they sell us 'T is the wood thereof which is naturally cover'd like that of our Nuts with a brou or green bark an inch thick and full of fibres whereof Cordages may be made In the wood of the Coco is a very pleasant liquor and the wood thereof is so full that it spurts a great way when it is pierced As this Fruit ripens this liquor congeals at the extremities that is to say near the wood and there forms a Nut very white and of a very good taste the water which is not yet congealed remains still at the Center of the Fruit and at length it all congeals Of the Siamese and Balie Languages THE Siamese Tongue has Thirty seven Letters and the Baly Thirty three but they are all Consonants As to the Vowels and Dipthongs of which there is a great number in the one and the other Language they have indeed some particular Characters whereof are made other Alphabets but of these Characters some are placed always before the Consonant some others always after others above others underneath and yet all these Vowels and all these Dipthongs thus variously disposed in respect of the Consonant must only be pronounced after it But if in the Pronunciation the Syllable begins with a Vowel or with a Dipthong or if it is only a pure Vowel or a pure Dipthong then they have a mute Character which supplys the place of a Consonant and which must not be pronounced This mute Character is the last in the two Alphabets the Siamese and Balie In the Siamese it has the figure of our o and indeed it countervails an o when it must be pronounced and not be a mute Consonant that is to say when it is preceeded with a Consonant or by it self In the Balie Alphabet this last Character countervails ang when it is not a mute Consonant but its figure has no resemblance to any one of our Letters Thus the first Letter of the Hebrew Alphabet which is Aleph serves as a mute Consonant in relation to which they place the Points which are the Vowels and it is probable that the Aleph was anciently pronounced like the Alpha of the
or rather kin teut or rather hai kin teut Hai properly signifies to give and is used likewise to signifie to the end Reu is the Note of Interrogation Kin le ou reu Hath he eaten or have you eaten Leou as we have said is the sign of the Perfect reu is plac'd always at the end of the Phrase To say I did eat they say I would eat tcha erai ken Tcha is the sign of the future crai signifies to will and so tcha crai signifies I would and kin signifies to eat To say if I was at Siam I should be satisfied they would say word for word if me to be City Siam my heart good much Heart good signifies content and the Verb I should be is there understood Of the Construction THey have Pronouns demonstrative and not relative They have Prepositions and Adverbs or at least Nouns taken in this sense The Nominative always precedes the Verb and the Verb precedes the governed The Preposition precedes also what it governs When two Substantives come together the latter is taken in the Genitive Van athit day of the Sun athit which signifies Sun is in the Genitive The Adjective is always after the Substantive and the Adverb after the Adjective or after the Verb to which it refers Their Construction is always shorter than ours because it wants Articles and a great many Particles which we have and oftentimes a Verb but the turn of their expressions seems long to us if we translate them word for word To say How is this thing named they say ny scheu rai that is to say verbatim this thing name how where they suppress the Verb. But to say bring me that they will say go take that and come To say give some Rice to thy Child they say take Rice give Child to eat The Construction is always short but the turn of the expression is long because they express all the circumstances of the Action In naming particular things they do almost always make use of the general word to which they add another word for the difference They say Head of Diamond to signifie a Diamond and they have two words the one for the Rough Diamond pet and the other for the Diamond set in work Ven houa pet houa ven Houa signifies Head To say a Man they say pou tchay to say a Woman pou ying which they pronounce almost pou-ging and pou signifies person to name the Beasts they put the word body body of an Ox body of a Cow Louk signifies Son Louk Schaou young Son that is to say Daughter Schaou in Siamese signifies young as nang in Balie To denote the Female amongst the Animals they use the word mia They joyn the word ban which signifies Village to almost all their Names of their Villages Ban-pac-tret yai Village of the Mouth of the great Strait Banc-pac-tretnoe Village of the Mouth of the little Strait Ban-vat Village of the Convent Banc-pacnam Village of the Mouth of the Water The Pater Noster and Ave Maria in Siamese with an Interlineary Translation PO raou Savang Scheu Pra hai prakot touk heng kon tang-lai touai Pra pon Meuang Pra co hai dai ke raou Hai leou ning tchai pra Meuang Pendin semo savang Ahan raou touk Van co hai dai ke raou Van ni co prot bap raou semo raou prot pou tam bap ke raou Ya hai raou tok nai kouan bap hai poun kiac anerai tang-poang Amen The Ave Maria. AVE Maria Ten anisong Pra you heng †Nang is that Balie word which signifies young and which added to Nouns Masculine renders them Feminine Nang Nang soum-boui yingkoua Nang Tang-lai Toui louk outong heng nang Pra Ongkio Yesu soum-boui ymgkoua Tanglai Sancta Maria Me Pra thoui ving von Pra pro raou kon bap teit-bat-ni le moua raou * 'T is the Latin Word tcha tai Amen A Smoaking Instrument made use of by the Moors which are at Siam THey have a glass bottle of the figure of our Caraffas excepting that it has a foot to be more firm they fill it up half with water and into the neck which is all of a bigness and very long they put a silver Pipe wound about with a Fillet to the end that it close the better but this Pipe enters only the length of two Fingers breadth though it be more than half a Foot long At the upper end is a little Cup either of Silver or Porcelane which has the bottom perforated to communicate with the Pipe and in this Cup is the Tobacco on which they put a live coal From the side of the Pipe there proceeds another much less in form of a Spout or rather it is the little one which enters into the great one at the side and it descends within the great one and as far as the great one it self yet without filling the whole capacity thereof but leaving a space through which the smoak of the Tobacco which is consumed in the Porcelane Cup may descend into the Bottle In fine to the inferior Orifice of the little Pipe they put another little Pipe of Bambou bound about also with a little Ribbon or black Silk which descends into the water Now he that would smoak setting this glass bottle or rather all this Machine which I have described upon the ground puts into the superior orifice of the little silver pipe the end of a Bambou-slip which though of one single shoot is sometimes between seven and eight foot long The two ends thereof are garnished with Gold or Silver and besides this one of the two is garnished with a little Chrystal Pipe which he that smoaks puts between his Lips From this manner it seems that in smoaking he would attract to his Mouth the Water of the Bottle by reason of the Communication that there is from the Mouth of the Smoaker to the Water of the Bottle viz. through the great Bambou slip thro the little Silver Pipe to which it joyns and thro the little Bambou Pipe which enters into the Water and which unites at the lower end of the small silver Pipe but instead of this the exterior air not being able to enter into the Bottle the Smoak of the Tobacco descends along the great silver Tube not only into the Bottle but even into the Water to insinuate it self into the little tube of Bambou from whence it ascends to the Mouth of the Smoaker So that he who invented this Instrument has very ingeniously apprehended that it would be more natural that the Smoak should be drawn into the water and from the water to the Mouth of the Smoaker then that the water which is heavier than the smoak should yield to the force of this Attraction Sometimes there are several small Tubes round the great one to the end that several persons may smoak in company with the same Instrument and the better
mean the two great sides of the frame and the middle stick are threaded at right Angles by several small sticks of wood or copper wires which are all parallel to one another and parallel to the two little sides of the Frame and placed at equal distances for Decency And in fine on each of these sticks are put seven Beads or Balls two on one side of the middle piece and five on the other which will slide or come along the Sticks that is to say to approach to and remove from the middle Lath or Partition This Instrument which is composed at most of Twenty or Twenty five sticks for the number thereof is uncertain is laid flat and not on the side and one turns to him the ends of those sticks which do each bear five Beads or Balls The way of using it is grounded 1st On this that the Beads do signifie only when slid near the middle Lath or Partition 2d. On this that each of the five Beads stands for a point and each of the two Beads five points as A Prospect of the Cape of Good Hope when one is in the Road at the Letter A the Road. The Wind Mountain The Table Mountain The Lyon Mountain A Prospect when one is at Sea The Lyon Mountain The Table Mountain The Lyon Mountain at ye. East ¾ S.E. The Table Mountain at E.S.E. The Dutch Factory at the Cape of Good Hope by Mr. Volan the Kings Engineer A. The Road. B. The Fort. C. The Garden D. The Houses of the Town E. The Gard n House F. Several Springs G. Island Robin H. The Cabanes of the Hotantots L. The Conduit where the Ships do take in fresh water K. The Top of the Lyon Mountain L. The Bottom of the same Mountain M. The Table Mountain N. The Wind Mountain O. The Windmill P. The Place where M Volan was when he drew this Design The Whale Rock The Hotantots the Natural Inhabitants of the Cape of Good Hope often as these Beads do stand for any thing that is to say as often as they approach them near the middle Partition 3d. On this that the sticks are reckoned from the right to the left and do stand for Number or Vnites Tens Hundreds and Thousands and all the other powers of the number ten in their natural Order In a word one may at the same time denote several sums in divers places of this Instrument by taking such sticks as one will to denote Unites and the next on the left to denote Tens and Hundreds and so successively And this is sufficient to illustrate the use of this Instrument to those that know how to reckon with Counters The Swiftness with which I have seen the Chineses which are at Siam make use thereof is inconceivable but they say that it is an effect of two years Apprenticeship The Instrument may be more simple if one will by putting only four Beads on one side and one on the other because that this is sufficient to mark to nine on each stick which is all that is requir'd and in this simplicity was the Roman Instrument which in my Relation I have mentioned that Pignorius has given us From whence the Learned may at their pleasure draw their Conjectures to decide which of these two Instruments is probably the Original either the most compound or the most simple The Simple seems a Correction of the Compound the Compound seems to have added to the Simple for the more facility and exactness in practice Of the Cape of Good-Hope I Have given three different Prospects thereof two of which are entirely new and the third which is that whose place of view is in the Road is copied after a very good Dutch Map Every one knows that the Dutch have an important Establishment there which secures their Navigation from the East-Indies The Fort which defends it would perhaps be no considerable thing in Europe but it is sufficient in a Country where there is no Neighbour to fear and where there can go no considerable Enemy but from a great distance and consequently with a great deal of difficulty The Company 's Garden the Platform whereof is in one of these Prints is very spacious as may be judged by comparing it to the Fort And tho' the Soil be not over-good it plentifully produces Coleworts Citruls Oranges Pomegranets and in a word Pulse and Fruits which keep at Sea and of which the Mariners are desirous in long Voyages In a corner and under a shelter I saw a Camphire-Tree an European Fig-Tree and a Shrub about two Foot high which was said to be that which bears the Tea and which I had taken for a young Pear-Tree It had neither Flowers nor Fruit and very few Leaves Close by and under another shelter were two or three Foot of Ananas and this was all the Rarity they show'd me for the Country The Grape is not more rare but there is only that which the Hollanders have planted there The Wine thereof is white and very good Some of our Crew went to the top of the Table Mountain to seek some extraordinary Plants but they found none Nevertheless upon a strict Scrutiny there is not any that has not something particular which the Plants of these Countries have not The shells there found are not the Remains of the Deluge as some have conjectur'd The Birds the Apes and the Hotantots do bring them and leave them there The Walks of the Garden do almost spontaneously maintain themselves because that the Soil produces only Moss if it is not cultivated Besides the neatness of the Garden has nothing which savours not a wise oeconomy nor any thing which savours a too great negligence like a Kitchen Garden of Merchants more wedded to the profit which they reap thence than to the Pleasures which they could not enjoy The water which waters it through several little Channels enters therein at the going out from a Mill which it turns and underneath the Garden it serves for blanching They only divert a part thereof which is conducted to a Cistern which is on the bank of the Road and where the Ships do go to take in their fresh water The Garden is divided into several great Squares almost like the Plot of the place Royal. They are encompassed with Pales to shelter them from the Winds which are sometimes furious enough to wreck the Ships in the Road if they have not good Anchors and good Cables These Winds are formed of the thick Clouds which do sometimes assemble between the Table-Mountain and that which is called the Mountain of the Wind by reason of these Storms A walk of Citron-trees and Orange-trees planted in Earth which go from one end of the Garden to the other do altogether resent their fury Next to this the situation of the Garden and that of the Village which is a little nearer to the Road are very good for they are wholly exposed to the Sun and sheltered from the South Winds which