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                                 SIAM:

                                  ITS
                   GOVERNMENT, MANNERS, CUSTOMS, &c.


                                  BY
                         Rev. N. A. McDONALD,
              For ten years a Missionary in that country.


                             PHILADELPHIA:
                            ALFRED MARTIEN,
                         1214 CHESTNUT STREET.
                                 1871.




      Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by
                            ALFRED MARTIEN,
      In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.




                             To the Memory
                  Of the Founder of Milnwood Academy,
                         REV. J. Y. McGINNES,

       Who had the cause of Foreign Missions very much at heart;

                       AND TO ALL WHO HAVE BEEN
                      PUPILS OF THAT INSTITUTION,
                          THIS LITTLE VOLUME

           Is respectfully dedicated, by one of the earliest
                     Students of the Institution,

                                        The Author.




  [Illustration: The present King of Siam.]




  Contents.

  CHAPTER I.
  GEOGRAPHY

  CHAPTER II.
  THE GOVERNMENT

  CHAPTER III.
  RELIGION

  CHAPTER IV.
  EDUCATION AND LITERATURE

  CHAPTER V.
  MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

  CHAPTER VI.
  COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE

  CHAPTER VII.
  CEREMONIES FOR THE DYING AND DEAD

  CHAPTER VIII.
  THEORY AND PRACTICE OF MEDICINE

  CHAPTER IX.
  FARMING AND PRODUCTS

  CHAPTER X.
  MODE OF DIVIDING TIME

  CHAPTER XI.
  MISSIONARY OPERATIONS




PREFACE.

In giving these pages to the public the author has no ambition to make
a book. Having been invited by the Principal of Milnwood Academy, at
Shade Gap, Pa., to deliver in that Institution a series of lectures,
or talks, on Siam, its government, manners, customs, &c., a few
friends have requested that they be reduced to paper and published,
which is his only apology for giving them to the public in book form.
A few additions have been made, and the facts are narrated as seen and
understood by the author. In a few instances, to refresh his memory,
he has referred to articles on Siam, published in the _Bangkok
Calendar_ and elsewhere. The work is intended chiefly for a class of
readers who may not have access to the more pretending works recently
published on that country.

                                                 N. A. M.

Shade Gap, Pa., April, 1871.




SIAM.




CHAPTER I.

GEOGRAPHY, Etc.


On my "overland" journey from Siam to the United States, through
France and England, many persons were accustomed to accost me saying,
"Pardon me, Sir, but what nationality is that young man who is with
you?" referring to my Siamese boy. That boy, Sir, is a Siamese. "A
Siamese! Well, I must confess my geography is a little shaky,--I
scarcely know where Siam is,--but I remember now that is where the
Siamese twins came from." Referring, of course, to those unfortunate
beings who by some "lusus naturae" are inseparably connected together,
and have been obliged to spend a long life in that condition, and who
have consequently become almost the only means by which their native
country is known to a vast majority of Europeans. When I, in 1860,
determined to go to Siam, I found it next to impossible to gather from
books any reliable information concerning it, and consequently took
shipping at New York almost as ignorant of the country to which I was
going, as I was of the moon. Fortunately however, some of our party
were returning, and before we arrived at our destination I was pretty
well prepared for what I was to encounter. Geographies are nearly
silent in regard to Siam, from the simple fact that geographers
themselves know nothing about it. It is also to be regretted that,
until very recently, chiefly all the books concerning Oriental
countries were written by mere cursory travellers, whose knowledge of
the countries through which they passed, or at which they touched,
must necessarily have been limited, and the chief object of many of
them appears to have been to make a readable book, oftentimes at the
expense of truth.

You will naturally ask, where is Siam? At the extreme point of that
vast continent extending from the snows of Siberia to the Equator, and
terminating in the long narrow Malay peninsula, is the little island
of Singapore, separated from the mainland by a narrow strait. The
island is about twenty-five miles long, and about fourteen miles
broad, and commands the entrance of the China sea. The English, who
have ever had an eye to strategic points, and especially in the East,
took possession of it in 1819, being then little more than a Malay
fishing village, and a nest for pirates. The present town of
Singapore, well laid out and neatly built, and situated on the
southern extremity of the island commanding the anchorage, contains
perhaps one hundred thousand inhabitants, whilst the principal English
merchants live in palatial residences on the hills in the rear of the
town. The government of the island, together with Malacca, Penang, and
Province Wellesley, has lately teen transferred from the Indian
Government directly to the Crown. It is a beautiful little island,
with a genial climate, and I know of no place in the East where I
would rather live.

Leaving Singapore, and passing through the strait, up the peninsula,
over the lower part of the China sea, and up the gulf of Siam about
eight hundred miles, you come to the kingdom of Siam, sandwitched
between Cambodia on the east and Burmah on the west, extending from
about latitude 4 deg. to 22 deg. north, and from longitude about 98 deg. to
104 deg. east; consequently there is neither frost or snow, but perpetual
summer reigns. The leaves fall and are replaced by new ones, whilst
those who are daily witnesses to it scarcely notice the change.

The climate of Siam is genial and healthy, but the constant heat is
trying to the constitutions of Europeans, who require a change at
least once in ten years. The seasons are two, the wet and the dry.
From November to May scarcely a cloud obscures the sky, and no rain
falls except perhaps a shower in January. The Siamese look for a
shower in that month, and are disappointed if it does not come. They
think it necessary for certain kinds of fruit which is just then
forming, and they also think it indicative of a good rice season. I
have, however, in ten years, seen January pass several times without
the expected shower. From November to February the weather is
delightful, being the cool season, but the thermometer is seldom lower
than 64 deg. March and April are the hottest months, but the thermometer
does not rise as high as might be expected in such a climate. I have
never seen it over 98 deg., but on account of the long absence of rain,
the ground in most places becomes dry and parched, and the rays of the
sun, reflected from the heated earth, give the atmosphere a kind of
bake-oven feeling, which is oftentimes hard to endure. From November
to May the wind blows constantly from the northeast, and is called the
"northeast monsoon." From May till November again, is the wet season,
the wind blowing constantly from the southwest, and is called the
"southwest monsoon," the rain falling in copious showers almost every
day. The showers come in a kind of rotation. If there is one to-day at
a certain hour, there will be one to-morrow an hour later. The showers
are copious indeed, and sometimes one would think the "windows of
heaven were opened." The lightning is vivid, and the thunder
oftentimes terrific.

Whither the name Siam came, or whence it is derived, it is now
impossible to tell. The Siamese themselves know nothing of it, only as
it is applied to their country by Europeans. The name they apply to
their country is "Muang Thai," the free country, in distinction from
those countries which are tributary. The name Siam, however, is now
coming into common use, and is sometimes inserted in public documents.

The geology of Siam is simple, the lower portion near the gulf being
an alluvial deposit, the result of the annual overflowing of the
rivers, which takes place at the close of every rainy season. The
water from the copious rains rushes down from the mountains up the
country, and overflows the lowlands, enriching them and causing them
to produce abundant crops of rice. The mountains are volcanic, and
some of them have the appearance of having been thrown from a distance
and set down in their present positions.

Many of them are barren of almost everything green, presenting to the
eye but little that is attractive, but others, especially in the North
Laos country, present scenery indescribably grand. In many places,
especially along the seacoast, the old granite, the foundation of all
things, geologically speaking, comes to the surface, and even projects
out in bold bluffs and headlands. The rocks on many of the mountains
present the appearance of having at one time been lashed by the waves
of the sea, and there is abundant evidence that much of the lower
country has been redeemed from the sea at no very remote period.

The country is drained by three streams of considerable size, which
empty into the gulf. The principal one is put down on our maps as the
Menam, but called by the Siamese Menam Chow Phya, Menam being the
generic name for river, meaning mother of water, and Chow Phya being
the specific name for that particular river. Were it not for a sandbar
at its mouth, it would be navigable for the largest class of vessels
to Bangkok, but on that account the largest vessels are obliged to
anchor in the roadstead outside. The Bampakong on the east, and
Tacheen on the west, are also streams of some importance. Besides
these, there are also a number of smaller streams.

Bangkok, the capital of the kingdom, is situated on both sides of the
Menam Chow Phya, about twenty-five miles from its mouth. It contains
about four hundred thousand inhabitants, and has been called the
Venice of the East, from the fact that much of the city is floating on
the river in the form of floating houses. These floating houses are a
kind of nondescript affair, and it is impossible to give one who has
never seen them any idea of them. The following description, by the
oldest missionary in Siam, and published in the _Bangkok Calendar_ of
1866, though quite too elaborate for easy reading, is as good as
anything that can be given, and I shall insert it "in toto."

"Our friends in the western world have heard a good deal about the
floating houses of Bangkok, but they universally speak of being unable
to understand, after all that has been written, what kind of things
they are. If the descriptions that have been given of them could have
always been accompanied by good photographic pictures of the same, our
friends would have had much less difficulty in understanding them. But
such pictures are too expensive to procure for illustrating 'The
Bangkok Calendar,' which never pays for its cost, and hence we must do
the next best thing, and that is to descend into quite minute detail,
if we would make our friends who have never visited Bangkok understand
such unique structures as the floating houses of the city. And as
these houses form a large part of the dwellings and mercantile shops
of this great metropolis, being the most conspicuous of all buildings
(the temples only excepted) as you pass up and down the Menam Chow
Phya, the 'Broadway' of Bangkok, they seem to demand a minute
description in 'The Calendar.' These floating houses are moored on