Musk, which is one of the chief articles of commerce, is not a product of this country, but a composition of ambergris and the secretion of a species of cat, which gives off an agreeable perfume is used instead. In the forests are plenty of wild animals, but cultivation is carried on by the help of buffaloes and oxen. The rivers teem with fish, some so large that two men can hardly carry one. The poor live on salt fish and rice. Although there is no salt water in the country, they find splendid rubies. Doubtless the foam that covers the fields after the rice harvest supplies the lack of salt for the formation of this precious stone in the bosom of the earth.
The Chinese carried on a considerable trade with Laos before the Tartar invasion. They brought velvets, silks, stuffs, carpets, horse-hair, cottons, gold, silver and porcelain which they bartered for ivory, opium and drugs.
In the province of Laos from whence the kingdom takes its name, there is a deep mine whence rubies and emeralds are extracted. The King possesses an emerald of the size of an ordinary orange.
Commercial relations, if established in this country, would be assuredly fruitful for the reason that the Laosians are the most upright and honest people in the Indo-Chinese peninsula. Not that they desire to possess every curious article of foreign origin they may see, but they prefer to be importunate in their demands for it rather than to attempt to gain possession of it by violence. The greatest praise that can be bestowed upon them is to remark on their fidelity to their pledged word. Robbery and murder are rarely heard of on the main routes, as the townships and villages are held responsible for any insults offered to travellers in the vicinity.
Their virtues are not unmixed with vices. By nature incorrigible idlers, they work only when absolutely obliged to. Arduous toil disgusts them, and destitute of perseverence, they cannot fix their attention for long on a single object and never examine anything more than superficially. Unbridled in their desires for the opposite sex, they seem to live merely for reproduction.
Sorcery and magic are the sources of many crimes and superstitions, but it is a weakness of the oriental mind never to undertake any important matter before having consulted and paid highly for the services of their duly qualified humbugs. The purity of the air tends to make the people long lived, and although the country is not very large, an army of 500,000 fighting men could easily be raised and it would not be difficult to raise a large force of centenarians, all healthy and vigorous. The inhabitants are less temperate than in other Eastern countries. They take four meals a day. Rice, fish and buffalo meat form their staple articles of diet. They rarely eat veal, beef or poultry. Birds are roasted with their feathers which impart a disagreeable taste to the flesh.
As a rule the magistrates and the higher officials do not take more than one wife, but this moderation is due to motives of economy. They wish to give the impression that they are so busy with state affairs that they have no time to give to their own pleasures.
However they keep large numbers of concubines which make up for the fact of their only keeping one wife. Marriage is a life-institution, but divorce is so common that marriage appears to be but a passing fancy. When a woman is convicted of adultery the husband can inflict whatever punishment he thinks fit.
Funerals are occasions of festivity rather than of mourning. The priests are well paid and are magnificently entertained. They contribute tears and funeral dirges and point out the road to the heavenly mansions to the spirit of the deceased. In the grave are placed offerings of money. It is to be presumed that the priests, as owners of the graves put the wealth buried by ignorance into circulation again. It should be noticed that the trade of this country has suffered from the various revolutions. In former times its products were taken to Siam, but since the Burmese invasion, they have been diverted to Pegu. The hatred inspired by the continuous state of hostility between these two nations has driven trade to Cambodia where the Laosians find a ready market for their gums, lacquer and other articles.
This ignorant nation boasts that it taught the Siamese the art of writing on palm leaves; the language and the characters are similar, but the Laosians cannot pronounce the letters R. and L. It is said that in the olden time, their mode of worship was unmixed with superstitious beliefs. They had no temples but worshipped a Creator god who ruled the world, and who could only be pleased by the practice of virtue and not by sacrifice and ceremony. They believe that after the lapse of a certain number of centuries, the universe will be renewed. This idea of a Periodical Great Year has been adopted by nearly all the nations of old time.