They import their brass ware and silk stuffs from China and Surat, and their cotton and woollen goods, cutlery, &c., principally from Singapore. Even the Talapoys’ razors for shaving their heads, are imported from Canton: they are made of thin brass, of a curved shape, about two inches wide throughout, and six inches long, fixed into a coarse wooden handle. The mechanic arts are carried on almost wholly by the industrious Chinese. The common houses are of bamboo, with attap roofs; some are built of wood, and few of brick; but with few exceptions, they all stand upon high piles. They are thus raised, in consequence of the inundation of the river, to make them more secure against depredations, to keep them dry, and to avoid the numerous reptiles. The bridges which cross the canals, are generally a single plank; some few have timbers laid on apartments of wood or brick, planked, and about six feet wide, but an arched bridge is nowhere to be seen. Roads there are none; and the only carriages are those owned by the king, which are brought out only on some great occasions, and are never seen beyond the walls of the city; of course, there is scarcely any use for horses or elephants. The Menam with its thousands of boats, and the numerous canals and branches of the river, make the communication every where cheap and easy, and compensate in a great measure, for the want of roads.
The principal amusement of the inhabitants, within their houses, is singing and playing on musical instruments, of various kinds: their singing is of a plaintive and melancholy cast, and they display considerable taste in its execution: but there is too much monotony, too much sameness in it; still they have got beyond the point of being pleased with mere sound, like the Chinese. Their musical instruments are very numerous: I have been able to describe but few; the music produced by them is very different from the vocal, being cheerful and lively. Playing chess is also a pastime. Dancing girls are kept for the amusement of the women of the higher classes. Tumblers, rope-dancers and actors, are considered necessary appendages for a complete establishment. Gambling is carried to great excess by the Siamese and Chinese; and the revenue derived from it, as will be seen in a statement of the revenue, is of considerable importance to the government. Flying kites is a favourite amusement with all, especially with the Talapoys, and a great number of them may be seen employed, in this way, at all hours of the day. Playing shuttlecock with their feet, three on a side, is much practised by them, as well as the laity; and in their houses, and even within their temples, they spend a large portion of their time at chess. These amusements, together with chewing areca, smoking cigars, begging, and sleeping, leave but little time for devotion and study.
DANCING SNAKES.
A few days since, a Siamese came into the yard, and desired to exhibit some dancing snakes; he uncovered a basket, and drew out with his naked hand several of a large size, and of the most venomous kind known in India, the cobra de capello—they were full six feet in length, and large in proportion; he had eight in the basket, and took out three or four at a time, and suffered them to run about: he would then touch one slightly on the body, as he was retreating, which caused him instantly to turn his head backward toward the tail. The head, from being round and small in proportion to the body, was quickly expanded to the width of full three, and probably five inches in length, showing a crown or circle in the centre; the head was nearly flat, his forked tongue was thrust out with great rapidity, and he kept vibrating from side to side, and his keen fiery eye shot forth most terrific glances; but he made a most noble and graceful, although frightful appearance.
The exhibitor kept a cloth moving, a short distance in front of his eyes, and the snake, in endeavouring to elude it, so that he might spring upon his adversary, kept in a dancing motion. Having tied two or three of the largest round his neck, and put the head of one of them in his mouth, the exhibition ended. Being satisfied that the fangs were extracted, or otherwise they could not be handled with impunity, I suffered two of them to run between my feet, but they did not offer to molest me or any one else.
The water used for domestic purposes is taken, with all its impurities, from the river, in water-tight buckets, neatly and strongly woven; it is put into unglazed earthen jars of thirty or forty gallons, and is suffered to settle in the best way it can, without any foreign aid. The filth of half a million of people, which is all emptied into the river, renders it most impure, and dead bodies are frequently thrown in to save the expense of burning. In a family, where no garments are mended—in which there is no baking or ironing of clothes; no stocking nor shoes worn, and the washing and drying of their simple garments, done at the river, does not occupy a month in a year—no books read, and no writing done—a large portion of the time of the females must, of course, be spent in sleep and idleness. This is the life led by the Siamese women of a good condition, they having in fact no occupation—this must be the true “dolce farniente” of the Italians, and a sorry one it is.
They wear no jewels, these being used altogether by the children, their dress consisting only of a waist and breast cloth of dark silk. A little music, the dancing girls, actors, and tumblers, occasionally exhibited, chess, colouring their skin yellow with turmeric, and anointing the tuft of unshorn hair on the top of their head; scandal, with frequent dissensions, the natural consequence of a plurality of wives; no riding out, seldom paying visits, and rarely diverting themselves with shopping, the almost unvaried repetition, from day to day, of the same dull round of occupations and amusements, cause their lives to drag on wearily, heavily, and listlessly. Long nails being considered a sort of patent of nobility by the Siamese, as well as the Chinese and Cochin-Chinese, draw a certain line of distinction between the vulgar, who are obliged to wear short ones and work for their living, and the higher orders. Those of the latter are carefully preserved from being broken, but not quite so much pains being taken to keep them clean, they are generally disgusting in their appearance—some of them are full two inches in length, and are put into cases of bamboo or metal on retiring to rest. The female actresses wear silver-pointed cases to them, which curve backward with a high sweep, nearly touching the wrist.
The higher orders of nobility, in fact, all who are allowed to crawl as far as the lowest place within the palace, and all the officers of state, must pay a morning and an evening visit to the “Lord of the White Elephant,” to his “golden-footed majesty,” “the master of all men’s lives.” Not to attend regularly, is considered a mark of disrespect and disaffection to the king: sickness, or some great calamity, only, is good cause for excuse.
Regularly, at half past eight in the morning, the praklang passed the mission house, having about a dozen paddles to his long canoe, sitting cross-legged or sidewise under the palm-leaf awning, or reclining on a carpet and cushions, a slave crouching on all fours in front of him, administering to his comforts in lighting a cigar, or helping him to areca. His palanquin (or rather a lacquered hand-barrow) protected from the rays of the sun by a large umbrella, was carried in the same boat, so as to be in readiness, on landing, to carry his unwieldy person to the palace. About noon, he returned. Between six and seven, he again regularly passed, and returned again usually about midnight. The paddlers on the numerous boats crouched low when he passed, as they all do when passing by the king’s bathing-house on the river: he never notices, in the slightest degree, their obeisance, but wo to them if they omit it. The bath-house is of great length, painted red, and decorated in front with numerous dwarf-trees and shrubs, and is used, it is said, daily, by his hundreds of (some say, eight hundred) wives and many scores of children, with their countless attendants.