Although the Siamese are not a cleanly people, they are far superior to the Cochin-Chinese; they bathe frequently, their skins are clear and free of eruptions, and they do not everlastingly scratch, scratch, and keep scratching, like the people of Vunglam; but their coal-black teeth are excessively disgusting, and the saliva created by chewing areca, siri-leaf, and tobacco, is constantly issuing in a red stream, from their mouths. Fishing being farmed out, there are not the same lively scenes exhibited here as on the Pasig. I have seen but a very few occupied in that way since my arrival. Every floating house has necessarily a boat to go visiting, from place to place, or to transact business. The front parts of all these houses are shops, having their wares neatly arranged on shelves and terraces. These buildings are of one story only, and are used as a bedroom at night, or to take a siesta when the heat of the day, low water, and want of customers, give to their inmates a temporary respite.
The river here is about fifteen hundred feet wide, and very deep, probably fifty or sixty feet, and the stream rapid on the flood and ebb; the water is notwithstanding, fresh, and is used for all domestic purposes, filthy as it is. The upper stratum of the banks of the river is alluvial, and the under, where exposed, shows a stiff strong clay. The houses on the land, with very few exceptions, are of one story, built on high piles, made of plank or bamboo, and roofed with tile or attap.
RECEPTION OF ENVOY.
Having expressed a desire to the praklang, through the interpreter, to enter as early as possible on the subject of the mission, I received an invitation early the next morning, from the minister of foreign affairs, to meet him the same afternoon at five. He sent me word at the same time, that it was always customary for foreign ministers to pay him the first visit. Suitable boats were sent in due time, and Captain Geisinger and his officers, and Mr. Morrison, accompanied me, dressed in their uniforms. A few minutes brought us to his house. Numerous people were present to attend our landing, a large portion of whom came, probably, from motives of curiosity only. The house being but a short distance from the river, we were soon within his gates, and entered by a flight of steps into the audience hall. In the centre was a raised seat, on which the minister reclined. He is a very heavy unwieldy man, weighing, probably, nearly three hundred pounds, and about fifty-five years of age; his only dress was a waist-cloth of silk; he was resting on a new crimson velvet cushion, supported on the back by one of triangular shape. In front, on the seat, were utensils of gold, handsomely wrought, containing areca, chunam, betel-leaf, &c., the gift of the king. The front of the hall was entirely open, the room decorated with a great number of very ordinary oval gilt looking-glasses, placed near to the ceiling, on the pillars which supported the roof; common English prints of battles, rural scenery, &c., were closely placed along the walls. Instead of wooden panels, painted Chinese glass was placed in compartments of about four feet in height, with a profusion of blue and gold, and outré figures of Chinese men, animals, &c. Brass chandeliers and common glass lamps were suspended from the roof. On the left of the praklang, being the seat of honour in the East, and at the distance of a dozen feet, were placed two chairs for Captain Geisinger and myself. I was requested to occupy the one nearest to the minister. A short distance from us, parallel with the praklang’s seat, chairs were placed for the officers of the Peacock and Mr. Morrison. On the right, on a raised platform, but lower than the minister’s or our seat, and fronting Captain Geisinger and myself, were Mr. Piedade and other interpreters, secretaries, &c., to the number of six or seven, closely wedged together; they were all crouching, in a brute-like attitude, on their knees and elbows. On the left, between me and the minister, were two of his younger sons, decorated with a profusion of golden necklaces, set with large stones, having beautiful golden coronets around the tuft of hair, on the top of the head, and a large golden bodkin secured the hair on their crown; a silken waist-cloth covered their loins, and silver bangles or rings decorated their wrists and ankles. Their skins were stained with turmerick, sandal-wood, or saffron. A sword-bearer, resting on his shoulder a sword, having a rich and highly-finished and ornamented gold sheath; another slave, with a long feathered fan, to keep his excellency cool, if possible, with others, were all prostrate on the floor, like the interpreters; without, in the court-yard, were a great number of people, all in this humiliating posture. His sons, when called, crawled as well as the others, and went backward in the same attitude, always facing their lord and master. One of them was ordered to bring us palm-leaf cigars; he came crawling on, poor fellow, bowed his head to the ground, and presented them; he then went to the officers, but stood up, after leaving Captain Geisinger and myself; he afterward crawled back to his station, on the left of his father. We all made a bow in the usual style of our country, on entering and retiring, and were presented with tea, sweetmeats, and fruit.
The minister congratulated us on our arrival, inquired, as is customary here, as to our ages, children, &c., what ports we had been to, the object of the mission, all of which he previously knew by a letter received from me, dated on the day of our arrival off the mouth of the Menam. Having got through with this interview, and appointed the next evening for a conference, we took leave. I observe that the greater chiefs within sight of our habitation, have high poles erected close to their houses, on which small flags are displayed, and at night large lanterns are hoisted at the top, as a distinguishing mark, over their less fortunate neighbours. Every sort of humiliation is practised by the lower to the higher classes, according to their rank: from that of making a simple obeisance by uniting their hands, and raising them to the forehead, and bowing the head low, to kneeling, and the entire prostration of the body.
We went by invitation, on the sixth of March, to the house of the praklang’s brother, to attend the celebration of the feats given, in consequence of cutting the tuft of hair on his son’s head, which is done between the ages of ten and fifteen. The principal part of this evening’s entertainment was comic acting and posture dancing, which consists in graceful attitudes of the body, and in slow movements of the arms and legs, particularly of the former, even to the distinct motions of the hands and fingers. The actors consisted of a king and queen, and male and female attendants, amounting to a dozen, all glittering in gold and tinsel, barefooted and barelegged, their faces painted white, and having silver guards to their nails, not less than six inches long, pointed at the end, and recurvated: singing in rather a melancholy strain, not altogether unmusical. There were about a hundred beating sticks on a long board, which were changed occasionally for another stick, which, when struck, sounded like castanets: two drums beaten by the hands, trumpets, small horns, and an instrument called a ranat: it is made in Lao or Laos, of graduated pieces of bamboo, which give a sweet sound when struck with a sort of wooden hammer covered with pieces of coarse cotton thread: it has eighteen keys or bars, each fifteen inches long, two inches broad, strung together, and suspended over a wooden boat-shaped box; the top part being left open. There was another instrument also, the khong-nong; being a series of small cymbals in a bamboo-frame, forming a large segment of a circle.
THE PRIMA DONNA.
During the posture-dances, and through a considerable part of the divertisement, the principal singer to all splendid entertainments, the prima donna, squalled to the very top of her voice, various ditties in a melancholy strain, until I thought she would have swooned from exhaustion: but I was mistaken; for she was made of tougher materials, than ever fell to the lot of any other female. She was seated on the ground, and dressed in a dingy cotton waist and breast cloth, and her hair arranged “à la Siamese;” it being all shaved off excepting on the crown, which was combed perpendicularly, standing “like quills upon the fretful porcupine.” Her teeth were as black as ebony, and her lips and gums were of a livid red: out of the corners of her mouth issued a stream of dark coloured saliva, which, ever and anon, she wiped off with the back of her hand, and which was finally deposited on the waist-cloth behind: the saliva was produced by masticating areca, siri, chunam and tobacco; the latter projecting from the right corner of her mouth, according to the disgusting practice of the Javanese and Siamese. A Catalani, a Sontag or a Garcia, could not feel much flattered by this addition to their sisterhood. When the actors enter on the floor, it is in a crouching or kneeling position, till they come in front of the master of the feast; then all kneel, bow their heads, and at the same time touch their foreheads with their united hands, and then slowly lower them to the waist. The second night’s entertainment consisted mostly of representations of gladiators engaged in combat, fighting with swords and sticks, while numerous Chinese crackers were let off in imitation of musketry: there were pugilistic contests also with the fists, and slapping with the flat of the hand; but there was no real “set-to.” There was also a most excellent company of vaulters and tumblers; some of the feats were truly surprising, as the following description will show: it was a feat of strength, which surpassed every thing of the kind that I ever witnessed. Four men placed themselves in a solid square, two others then got up and stood upon their shoulders, and another man again upon theirs; a very athletic young man apparently about sixteen years of age, by the assistance of a ladder, placed himself in a similar position, on the shoulders of the last man, standing however only on one foot, occasionally shifted; a boy of about twelve, then mounting a ladder high enough for the top man to seize him by a belt round the waist, he was raised at arms’ length with perfect ease, standing on one leg, and occasionally shifting it to the other. After balancing him for a minute or two he threw his burden from him, who descending turned a somerset and came without harm on his feet, being pitched from an elevation of about twenty-four feet. There were a great many hundred spectators all sitting on the floor, excepting the wives and relations of the master of the feast, who sat in a narrow gallery. Chairs were used only by our party, consisting of eleven.
A handsome entertainment was served up to us, in a very neat large room, to which we ascended by a flight of four stairs, leading from a court open on two sides. The supper consisted of a great variety of sweetmeats and fruit, served up in a very neat pretty style, on silver salvers, placed on half a dozen tables—the chairs being borrowed expressly for our use; the head of the table was assigned to me; cocoa-nut water was the only drink, which was taken from the shell. The room was decorated, at one end, with an elegant canopy, rich in gold and silk, under which were displayed elegant glass, China ware, and gold and silver utensils, arranged on a wooden-terraced frame, highly gilt, painted, and varnished, flowers being interspersed here and there. The canopy was brilliantly lighted with coloured lamps, and made a handsome, rich, unique, but rather tawdry appearance. As I cannot tell a Siamese man from a woman, when numbers are seated together, so it is out of my power to say whether any females were present, excepting the young actresses, who were all barefooted young girls. The hair of the Siamese women is cut like that of the men; their countenances are, in fact, more masculine than those of the males: they are generally very fat, having very stout lower limbs and arms; are excessively ugly; and when they open their mouths, truly hideous; resembling the inside of a black painted sepulchre.
FIRE AT BANGKOK.