The next two days, proceeding leisurely, I halted at several temples, at one of which I was presented with a stone head worthy of Grecian art; and at another I saw many fine bronze images of Buddha, which had been maliciously broken—perhaps when the Burmese invaded the country. Some of the abbots I subsequently met gladly sold me several small images of Buddha for a few two-anna and four-anna bits—equivalent to 2d. and 4d. One of the pagodas—that at Ban Wung Ken—was remarkable on account of its being ornamented with crockery plates four inches in diameter. This mode of decoration must be Chinese in origin. One of the large pagodas in Bangkok is similarly adorned. On the branches of a Mai Ma-kok tree near the crockery pagoda, some enormous beehives were suspended about 70 feet from the ground.
View looking west from Kamphang Pet.
Loi Kow Chung.
On the morning of the 18th I halted at Ban Bung Kay-ow to sketch a hill of mural limestone about 2000 feet high, called Loi Kow Chung, which was seen on end three miles to the south-east of the village; and shortly afterwards passed some floating houses, resting upon rafts of bamboos, and occupied by a band of strolling players. The women had their faces daubed over with a ghastly white paste; and their fingers, as is the habit with well-to-do Siamese females, covered with rings; and gold, or most likely pinchbeck, chains thrown over their neck and shoulders.
Loi Kow Chung.
The amount of jewellery and gold and silver ornaments worn by wealthy people in Siam—especially by women and children—is surprising. Children of the rich wear heavy anklets and bracelets of gold, those of poorer people of silver, and those of the poorest classes of brass. More often than not, lads and lassies so bedecked have not a rag of clothing on them. Clothes are not thought necessary for children in Siam until they reach seven or eight years of age.
At Ban Ta Nyoo I sketched the front face of the limestone hill, and, 10 miles farther down-stream, Loi Kow Luong—the last great spur that approaches the river from the western hills. Sugar-cane, rice, cotton, and tobacco seemed to be the chief crops grown. The slopes of the river-banks, where flat, were planted with tobacco, pumpkins, and melons.