A NATIVE BAND OF MUSIC.
"The native band of music is a curiosity, as it is quite unlike anything you ever saw. The king has a band after the European style, with a French leader, and with instruments imported from London or Paris. It plays very well, and can render some of the popular pieces that we are familiar with just as well as any ordinary band in New York or London. When we were passing the palace the other day we heard them playing a selection from Faust, and another from the 'Grande Duchesse;' and one evening we heard the Siamese national hymn, which is a very pretty composition, and worthy of a place among the national airs of Europe. But the native music is quite another thing.
"The performers sit down to their work instead of standing up, and they do not sit on chairs, but on the floor. The only band of the kind I have yet seen consisted of five performers, all women—one of them having a sort of guitar, another a violin, another a drum played with the fingers of one hand, another with a row of bamboo sticks that were struck with a small hammer, and the last of the five had a row of metal cups that were played like the bamboo sticks. There is a good deal of variety to the music in some ways, and very little in others; it seemed to be capable of considerable modulation in time and tune; and while at times it was loud and harsh, at others it became low and plaintive. Whether they have any regular tunes or not I am unable to say; they seemed to start off on a measure, and then repeat it over and over again for twenty or thirty minutes. Perhaps they would keep it up for a week or two if the weather was not too warm for continuing one's exertions for that length of time. They didn't seem to keep very closely together, and probably there was no occasion for them to do so, as the tune is of such a nature that each player can do pretty much what he likes.
A SIAMESE THEATRICAL PERFORMANCE.
"These lakon girls are the performers in the theatres of Bangkok, or rather at the private theatricals that are given at the houses of the nobles and high officials. These affairs are generally given in a garden or court-yard, where carpets are spread under the trees that grow there. The dialogue is accompanied by music of the kind I have described, and sometimes they have drums like small barrels suspended on triangles or propped up on little frames. The performances are usually historical, but not always so, as the Siamese drama abounds in love-plays, which are taken from their literature. In the historic plays the costumes are frequently very hideous, though richly gilded and decorated; they have very little scenery or stage settings, and I think that a first-class theatre of New York or Paris would astonish them greatly. When not occupied on the stage, the performers stand or sit around the wings, and the audience is supposed not to see them.
"The voices of the singers are very sweet; and Doctor Bronson says that some of them only need careful training to make excellent performers. They are said to be much more musical than the Chinese or the Japanese, and much quicker to catch foreign music when it is taught to them.