Siam : The Land of the White Elephant as It Was and Is

by George B. Bacon

Tigers are abundant in the jungle, but are more frequently dangerous to other animals, both wild and domestic, than to men. The rhinoceros, the buffalo, bears, wild pigs, deer, gazelles, and other smaller animals inhabit the forests. Monkeys are abundant. In Cambodia Mouhot found several new species. And the orang-outang is found on the Malayan peninsula. Various species of cats, and among them tailless cats like those of Japan, are also to be found. Bats are abundant, some of them said to be nearly as large as a cat. They are fond of dwelling among the trees of the temple-grounds, and Pallegoix says (but it seems that the good Bishop must have overstated the case, as other travellers have failed to notice such a phenomenon) that "at night they hang over the city of Bangkok like a dense black cloud, which appears to be leagues in length."

Birds are abundant, and often of great size and beauty; some of them sweet singers, some of them skilful mimics, some of them useful as scavengers. Peacocks, parrots, parroquets, crows, jays, pigeons, in great numbers and variety, inhabit the forest trees.

What the elephant is in the forest, the crocodile is in the rivers, the king of creeping things. The eggs of the crocodile are valued as a delicacy; but the business of collecting them is attended with so many risks that it is not regarded as a popular or cheerful avocation. It will be well for the collector to have a horse at hand on which he can take immediate flight. The infuriated mother seldom fails, says Pallegoix, to rush out in defence of her progeny.

"At Bangkok there are professional crocodile-charmers. If a person is reported to have been seized by a crocodile, the king orders the animal to be captured. The charmer, accompanied by many boats, and a number of attendants with spears and ropes, visits the spot where the presence of the crocodile has been announced, and, after certain ceremonies, writes to invite the presence of the crocodile. The crocodile-charmer, on his appearance, springs on his back and gouges his eyes with his fingers; while the attendants spring into the water, some fastening ropes round his throat, others round his legs, till the exhausted monster is dragged to the shore and deposited in the presence of the authorities." Father Pallegoix affirms that the Annamite Christians of his communion are eminently adroit in these dangerous adventures, and that he has himself seen as many as fifty crocodiles in a single village so taken, and bound to the uprights of the houses. But his account of the Cambodian mode of capture is still more remarkable. He says that the Cambodian river-boats carry hooks, which, by being kept in motion, catch hold of the crocodiles, that during the struggle a knot is thrown over the animal's tail, that the extremity of the tail is cut off, and a sharp bamboo passed through the vertebræ of the spine into the brain, when the animal expires.

There are many species of lizards, the largest is the takuet. His name has passed into a Siamese proverb, as the representative of a crafty, double-dealing knave, as the takuet has two tongues, or rather one tongue divided into two." This is perhaps the lizard (about twice as large as the American bull-frog) which comes into the dwellings unmolested and makes himself extremely useful by his destruction of vermin. He is a noisy creature, however, with a prodigious voice. He begins with a loud and startling whirr-r-r-r, like the drumming of a partridge or the running down of an alarm-clock, and follows up the sensation which he thus produces by the distinct utterance of the syllables, "To-kay," four or five times repeated. He is not only harmless, but positively useful, but it takes a good while for a stranger to become so well acquainted with him that the sound of his cry from the ceiling, over one's bed for instance, and waking one from a sound sleep, is not somewhat alarming.

There is no lack of serpents, large and small. Pallegoix mentions one that will follow any light or torch in the darkness, and is only to be avoided by extinguishing or abandoning the light which has attracted him. There are serpent-charmers, as in other parts of India. They extract the poison from certain kinds of vipers, and then train them to fight with one another, to dance, and perform various tricks.

Pallegoix mentions one or two varieties of fish that are interesting, and, so far as known, peculiar to Siamese waters. One, "a large fish, called the mengphu, weighing from thirty to forty pounds, of a bright greenish-blue color, will spring out of the water to attack and bite bathers." He says there "is also a tetraodon, called by the Siamese the moon, without teeth, but with jaws as sharp as scissors. It can inflate itself so as to become round as a ball. It attacks the toes, the calf, and the thighs of bathers, and, as it carries away a portion of the flesh, a wound is left which it is difficult to heal."

Of centipedes, scorpions, ants, mosquitoes, and the various pests and plagues common to all tropical countries it is not necessary to speak in detail.

Sir John Bowring considered that sugar was likely to become the principal export of Siam, but thus far it would seem that rice has taken the precedence. The gutta-percha tree, all kinds of palms, and of fruits a vast and wonderful variety (among which are some peculiar to Siam), are abundant. The durian and mangosteen are the most remarkable, and have already been described. So far as is known, they grow only in the regions adjacent to the Gulf of Siam and the Straits of Sunda. And though there are many fruits common to these and to all tropical countries which are more useful (such as the banana, of which there are said to be in Siam not less than fifty varieties, "in size from a little finger to an elephant's tusk"), there are none more curious than these. The season of the mangosteen is the same with that of the durian. The tree grows about fifteen feet high, and the foliage is extremely glossy and dark. The fruit may be eaten in large quantities with safety, and is of incomparable delicacy of flavor. No fruit in the world has won such praises as the mangosteen.

Of the mineral treasures of Siam, enough has been already indicated in the description of the wealth and magnificence which is everywhere apparent. We need only add that coal of excellent quality and in great abundance has been recently discovered, and that the country is also rich in petroleum, which awaits the wells and refineries by which it may be profitably used. Gold and silver mines are both known but little is produced from them. The government is obliged to import Mexican dollars in order to melt and recoin them in the new mint.