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[Illustration: THE IDOL OF BUDDHA]




  THE

  ROMANCE OF THE HAREM.

  BY

  MRS. ANNA H. LEONOWENS,

  AUTHOR OF "THE ENGLISH GOVERNESS AT THE SIAMESE COURT."

  Illustrated.

  [Illustration: THE EMERALD IDOL.]

  BOSTON:
  JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY,

  LATE TICKNOR & FIELDS, AND FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO.

  1873.




  Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872,
  BY JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO.,
  in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & CO., CAMBRIDGE.




PREFACE.


"Truth is often stranger than fiction," but so strange will some of the
occurrences related in the following pages appear to Western readers,
that I deem it necessary to state that they are also true. Most of the
stories, incidents, and characters are known to me personally to be
real, while of such narratives as I received from others I can say that
"I tell the tale as it was told to me," and written down by me at the
time. In some cases I have substituted fictitious for real names, in
order to shield from what might be undesired publicity persons still
living.

I gladly acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. Francis George Shaw for
valuable advice and aid in the preparation of this work for the
press, and to Miss Sarah Bradley, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Bradley of
Bangkok, for her kindness in providing me with photographs, otherwise
unattainable, for some of the illustrations.

  NEW BRIGHTON, STATEN ISLAND,
  September 13, 1872.




DEDICATION.


To the noble and devoted women whom I learned to know, to esteem, and
to love in the city of the Nang Harm, I dedicate the following pages,
containing a record of some of the events connected with their lives
and sufferings.




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

  I. The Idol of Buddha                           _Frontispiece._

  II.  The Emerald Idol                               _Vignette._

  III.  A Siamese Slave-Girl                              Page 32

  IV.  A Siamese Flower-Girl                               "   48

  V.  Guard of Amazons                                     "   64

  VI.  Palm-Trees near the New Road, Bangkok               "   80

  VII.  A Young Siamese Nobleman                           "  104

  VIII.  Smâyâtee                                          "  120

  IX.  A Royal Actress                                     "  128

  X.  Rungeah, the Cambodian Proselyte                     "  144

  XI.  Ladies of the Royal Harem at Dinner                 "  160

  XII. A Laotian                                           "  168

  XIII. Crenellated Towers of the Inner City               "  176

  XIV.  An Amazon of the Royal Body Guard                  "  184

  XV.  Queen of Siam                                       "  240

  XVI. King of Siam                                        "  264

  XVII. Temple and Ruins of Kampoot                        "  270




CONTENTS.


    CHAPTER                                                       PAGE

    I. "Muang Thai," or the Kingdom of the Free                     1

    II. Tuptim: A Tragedy of the Harem                             14

    III. Tuptim's Trial                                            25

    IV. The King changes his Mind                                  35

    V. Slavery in the Grand Royal Palace of the "Invincible
    and Beautiful Archangel"                                       42

    VI. Khoon Thow App, the Chief of the Female Judges             58

    VII. The Rajpoot and his Daughter                              65

    VIII. Among the Hills of Orissa                                72

    IX. The Rebel Duke P'haya Si P'hifoor                          77

    X. The Grandson of Somdetch Ong Yai, and his Tutor
    P'hra Chow Sâduman                                             84

    XI. The Heroism of a Child                                    102

    XII. The Interior of the Duke Chow P'haya Mândtree's
    Harem                                                         107

    XIII. A Night of Mysteries                                    112

    XIV. "Weeping may endure for a Night, but Joy cometh in
    the Morning"                                                  118

    XV. The Favorite of the Harem                                 122

    XVI. May-Peâh, the Laotian Slave-Girl                         145

    XVII. An Accidental Discovery of the Whereabouts of the
    Princess Sunartha Vismita                                     151

    XVIII. Lady Thieng, the Head Wife and Superintendent of
    the Royal Cuisine                                             155

    XIX. The Princess Sunartha Vismita                            160

    XX. Pak Laut, or the Mouth of the Ocean                       165

    XXI. Narrative of the Princess of Chiengmai                   171

    XXII. "Bijrepuree," or the Diamond City                       175

    XXIII. The Deaf and Dumb Changeling                           180

    XXIV. Witchcraft in Siam in Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-Six,
    compared with Witchcraft in England in Seventeen
    Hundred and Sixteen                                           184

    XXV. Trial for Witchcraft                                     188

    XXVI. The Christian Village of Tâmsèng, or of Thomas the
    Saint                                                         202

    XXVII. Nang Rungeah, the Cambodian Proselyte                  213

    XXVIII. Ad ogni Uccello suo Nido è bello,--"To every Bird
    its own Nest is charming"                                     221

    XXIX. Stray Leaves from the Royal School-Room Table           237

    XXX. The Siamese System of Slavery                            257

    XXXI. The Royal Proclamations                                 264

           *       *       *       *       *

    A Legend of the Gold and Silver Mines of Siam                 271

FOOTNOTES:




ROMANCE OF THE HAREM.




CHAPTER I.


"MUANG THAI," OR THE KINGDOM OF THE FREE.

Siam is called by its people "Muang Thai" (the kingdom of the free).
The appellation which we employ is derived from a Malay word _sagûm_
(the brown race), and is never used by the natives themselves; nor
is the country ever so named in the ancient or modern annals of the
kingdom.

In the opinion of Pickering, the Siamese are of Malay origin. A
majority of intelligent Europeans, however, regard the population
as mainly Mongolian. But there is much more probability that they
belong to that powerful Indo-European race to which Europe owes its
civilization, and whose chief branches are the Hindoos, Persians,
Greeks, Latins, Kelts, and the Teutonic and Sclavonic tribes. The
original site of this race was in Bactria, and the earliest division
of the people could not have been later than three or four thousand
years before the Christian era. Comparative philology alone enables us
to trace the origin of nations of great antiquity. According to the
researches of the late king, who was a very studious and learned man,
of twelve thousand eight hundred Siamese words, more than five thousand
are found to be Sanskrit, or to have their roots in that language, and
the rest in the Indo-European tongues; to which have been superadded
a great number of Chinese and Cambodian terms. He says: "The names of
temples, cities, and villages in the kingdom of Siam are derived from
three sources, namely, Sanskrit, Siamese, and Cambodian. The names
which the common people generally use are spoken according to the idiom
of the Siamese language, are short and easily pronounced; but the names
used in the Court language and in the government documents, which
receive the government seals, are almost all of Sanskrit derivation,
apt to be long; and even though the Sanskrit names are given at full
length, the people are prone to speak them incorrectly. Some of our
cities and temples have two and even three names, being the ancient and
modern names, as they have been used in the Court language or that of
the people."

As the words common to the Siamese and the Sanskrit languages must have
been in use by both peoples before their final separation, we have here
a clew to the origin and degree of civilization attained by the former
before they emigrated from the parent stock.

Besides the true Siamese, a great variety of races inhabit the Siamese
territories. The Siamese themselves trace their genealogy up to the
first disciples of the Buddha, and commence their records at least
five centuries before the Christian era. First, a long succession of
dynasties, with varying seats of government, figure in their ancient
books, in which narrations of the miracles of the Buddhas, and of the
intervention of supernatural beings, are frequently introduced. Then
come accounts of matrimonial alliances between the princes of Siam
and the Imperial family of China; of embassies to, and wars with, the
neighboring countries, interspersed with such relations of prodigies
and such marvellous legends as to surpass all possible conception
of our less fertile Western imaginations. It is only after the
establishment of Ayudia as the capital of Siam, A.D. 1350, that history
assumes its rightful functions, and the course of events, with the
regular succession of sovereigns, is registered with tolerable accuracy.

The name of Siam was first heard in Europe--that is, in Portugal--in
the year 1511, nine years after Alfonso d'Albuquerque, the great
Viceroy of the Indies, had landed on the coast of Malabar with
his soldiers, and conquered Goa, which he made the seat of the
Portugo-Indian government, and the centre of its Asiatic operations.
After establishing his power in Goa, D'Albuquerque subdued the whole
of the Malabar, the island of Ceylon, the Sunda Isles, the peninsula
of Malacca, and the beautiful island of Ormuz, at the entrance to the
Persian Gulf.

It was here that D'Albuquerque is said to have received the ambassadors
of the Emperor of Persia, sent to collect the tribute formerly paid to
him by the sovereigns of the island, and, instead of the customary gold
and silver, to have laid before them iron bullets and a sword, with:
"This is the coin in which Portugal pays those who demand tribute from
her." Whether this incident really occurred or not, it is certain that
D'Albuquerque made the name of Portugal so feared and respected in the
East, that many of the potentates in that region, and among them the
kings of Siam and Pegu, sent embassies to him, and sought his alliance
and protection. The profitable relations anticipated from this opening
were interrupted, however, by the long and bitter war which shortly
broke out between Siam and Birmah, and the intercourse between the
Siamese and Portuguese was not renewed for a long time. As early as the
fifteenth century the celebrated German traveller, Mandelslohe, visited
Ayudia, the capital of Siam, and called it the Venice