CHAPTER XX.
ANCIENT LAWS OF SIAM—LEGAL OATHS—PUNISHMENT FOR DEBT—DIVORCES—POPULATION OF SIAM—STATURE AND COMPLEXION OF THE SIAMESE—DIVISION OF TIME—BOUNDARIES AND POSSESSIONS OF SIAM—MARINE OF SIAM—IMPORTS—INLAND TRADE—CURRENCY—TREATY OF COMMERCE—TABLE OF EXPORTS.
The Siamese have written laws, which are dated as far back as 561 of Christ; and others are referred to in their courts, to the years of 1053-1614 and 1773.
The higher officers of state are the justices and magistrates, but the final decision rests with the principal local authority within whose district the delinquent resides. Where the government is a perfect despotism, and the channels of justice are polluted by corrupt propounders of the law, equity and justice are but empty names, and good laws a mere mockery. Oaths are administered to witnesses only on formal and solemn occasions: the following being the form used in their courts as translated by Capt. Lowe:—
“I, who have been brought here as an evidence in this matter, do now, in the presence of the divine Prah-Phutt hi-rop (Budha,) declare that I am wholly unprejudiced against either party, and uninfluenced in any way by the opinions or advice of others, and that no prospects of pecuniary advantage, or of advancement to office, have been held out to me; I also declare that I have not received any bribe on this occasion. If what I have now spoken be false, or if in my further averments I should colour or pervert the truth, so as to lead the judgment of others astray, may the three Holy Existences, viz.: Budha, the Bali (personified,) and the three priests, before whom I now stand, together with the glorious Dewatas (demi-gods) of the twenty-two firmaments, punish me.
“If I have not seen, yet shall I say I have seen; if I shall say that I know that which I do not know, then may I be thus punished. Should innumerable descents of the Deity happen for the regeneration and salvation of mankind, may my erring and migrating soul be found beyond the pale of their mercy—wherever I go, may I be encompassed with dangers, and not escape from them, whether arising from murderers, robbers, spirits of the earth, of the woods, of water, or of air, or from all the divinities who adore Budha, or from the gods of the four elements, and all other spirits.
“May blood flow out of every pore of my body, that my crime may be made manifest to the world; may all or any of these evils overtake me within three days, or may I never stir from the spot on which I now stand, or may the hatsani, or lash of the sky, (lightning,) cut me in two, so that I may be exposed to the derision of the people; or if I should be walking abroad, may I be torn to pieces by either of the four supernaturally endowed lions, or destroyed by poisonous herbs or venomous snakes. If when in the waters of the rivers or ocean, may supernatural crocodiles or great fishes devour me, or may the winds and waves overwhelm me; or may the dread of such evils keep me, during life, a prisoner at home, estranged from every pleasure, or may I be afflicted with the intolerable oppressions of my superiors, or may a plague cause my death; after which may I be precipitated into hell, there to go through innumerable stages of torture, among which may I be condemned to carry water over the flaming regions in open wicker baskets, to assuage the heat felt by Than-Wetsuan, when he enters the infernal hall of justice, and thereafter may I fall into the lowest pit of hell; or if these miseries should not ensue, may I after death migrate into the body of a slave, and suffer all the hardships and pains attending the worst state of such a being, during a period of years, measured by the sand of four seas; or may I animate the body of an animal, or beast, during five hundred generations; or be born an hermaphrodite five hundred times, or endure in the body of a deaf, blind, dumb, houseless beggar, every species of loathsome disease during the same number of generations, and then may I be hurried to varah, or hell, and there be crucified by Phria-yam, one of the kings of hell.”
The Siamese are extremely capricious, in the standard value of witnesses; the oath of priests and men in office, bearing a preference over all others, while there are not less than twenty-eight in number, who are excluded, and declared to be incompetent; they are as follows: contemners of religion, persons in debt, the slaves of a party to a suit, intimate friends, idiots, those who do not hold in abhorrence the cardinal sins, among which are enumerated, besides theft and murder, drinking spirits, breaking prescribed fasts, and reposing on the mat or couch of a priest or parent, gamblers, vagrants, executioners, quack-doctors, play-actors, hermaphrodites, strolling musicians, prostitutes, blacksmiths, persons labouring under incurable disorders, persons under seven or above seventy, bachelors, insane persons, persons of violent passions, shoemakers, beggars, braziers, midwives, and sorcerers.
Tortures are resorted to in cases of treason or atrocious robbery, and even among debtors where property is supposed to be concealed, as well as the ordeal by water and immersing the hands in boiling oil or melted tin. He who remains the longest under water, and the hand which comes forth unscathed, are pronounced to be innocent. A debtor may be punished by stripes and imprisonment, or dried, as it is termed by the Siamese, that is exsiccated by being exposed to the direct rays of a burning sun, suffering in addition the torments from myriads of noxious insects, and finally to be sold as a slave if he is unable to discharge his debt.