N. A. McDonald

“ There are some things in which "Young America" might well pattern after the Siamese. One is extreme reverence and respect for age. The aged receive that reverence justly due to them in Siam, perhaps more than in any other country. Another is love and reverence for parents. The parent may sell a child into slavery, which is frequently done, still when the child grows up, he never loses respect for that parent. When a child too, commits a crime, and tries to evade the law, the authorities at once lay hold upon the parents, which is sure to bring the culprit back to give himself up. ”

“ For instance, if fire from without enters the body in undue proportions, it will derange the healthy equilibrium of the same element within, and will produce one or more of the diseases into which fire enters, such as fevers, measles, small-pox, &c. Each element is supposed to have its season of influence to produce disease, just as the fruits of the earth have their seasons. Their medical books, and common parlance, both say that in such and such months, wind produces most disease, and in such and such other months, fire produces most, and so with all the other elements. ”

“ There is no people, however, who excel the Siamese in devotedness and fidelity, and can show so many gorgeous temples and monasteries. The government and the religion are so inseparably connected together, that it is impossible to see how the one can be overthrown without the other. It is a mutual union of Church and State. No one can hold any civil office whatever under the government, who has not spent at least three months in the priesthood.
Budhism was brought from Ceylon to Cambodia, and thence to Siam, and probably arrived in Siam about the fifth century of the Christian era. ”

“ Every priest can take to the temple with him as many pupils as he can teach, so that at almost every temple can be found a nice collection of boys, making a very respectable school. These boys besides being taught the rudiments of their own language, and the tenets of the Budhist religion, act also as servants to the teacher, propelling his boat when he goes out on the river, and doing other like menial turns for him. They live on the surplus rice which is left, after the priests are satisfied. Every pupil is taught to hold his teacher in special reverence, which lasts through life. ”

“ Fatality is the cause of creation. The universe came into existence by the inherent force of fixed and invariable laws, which brings the worlds out of chaos, and conducts them on by gradation to a state of high perfection, and then downward again by the same gradation to dissolution, and then back again, upward and downward in a series that had no beginning, and will have no end. If any Siamese in the kingdom be asked who made the world, he will invariably answer "pen eng," it made itself. ”

“ There is what is called the Senabodee, or Royal Counsellors, consisting of the chief ministers of state, who during the life of the king are merely silent counsellors, but upon his death their power becomes manifest, and upon them devolves the responsibility of selecting a successor, and governing the kingdom until such successor is chosen. The successor must be a prince of the realm, but not necessarily the eldest son of the late king—indeed, not necessarily a son of his at all. ”

“ It is also contrary to Siamese custom to have any one pass over their head, and consequently they will not occupy the lower story of a house when persons are above them on the next story. When the King goes out on the canals in his boat, all the bridges have to be drawn, lest his sacred head should pass under where some person had walked. No greater insult can be offered than to take a man by the tuft of hair on his head. It is the same as spitting in a man's face with us.
Like all heathen, and I am sorry to say too many Christians, they are very fond of jewelry, especially the women. ”

“ But heathen morals have ever been the same, and the description which Paul gives of the heathen of old, in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, is a complete description of the heathen of to-day. There is a rottenness about everything, morally speaking, which we do not find in Christian countries. It would be impossible on an occasion of this kind, and before a mixed audience, to give you any idea of the prevailing state of morals. I am not one of those, who, like the English governess in the Atlantic Monthly, would consider Budhism a shadow of Christianity, and "thank God" for it. ”

“ A man in Siam who embraces Christianity, expects to cut himself off from everything which has hitherto been near and dear to him. They have the most profound reverence for the King, and cannot understand how the United States can get along without one. A nobleman not long since asked a missionary in good faith, if the United States would not soon be far enough advanced to have a King, like England and France. The missionary replied, that from present indications England and France would soon be far enough advanced to do without one.
The Siamese are also wonderfully addicted to custom. ”

“ We find here amongst the mountaineer Laos, men who but a short time before had embraced Christ,—infants as it were, but a span long in faith,—sealing their faith with their blood. Had we no other fruits of our long labors in Siam than this glorious conversion, and still more glorious death of those mountaineer Laos, that alone will more than a thousand times repay all the expenditure of men and money upon that kingdom. ”

“ The Siamese believe the human system to be composed of four elements—water, air, fire, and earth, and that disease is simply a derangement in the proportions of these elements. They believe also that all nature is constituted in the same way, and that the elements without, are continually operating upon the elements within the body, producing health or disease. ”

“ Becoming disgusted with the luxuries and pleasures of courtly life he adopted that of a hermit, and like all hermits became an enthusiast, and fancied that he had found the only true road to all good, and thus leaped from the circle of eternal transmigration into a "sublimation of existence that has no attribute and knows no change." ”

“ The people exist for the monarch, and not the monarch for the people. The laws, as a general thing, are laws of the king and not of the country. The old adage, "New kings make new laws," is often literally true in Siam, providing the new sovereign is so disposed. He is absolute master of the persons, property, liberty and lives of his subjects. ”

“ A nobleman is rather to be envied than otherwise on his return home, as he receives so many delicate attentions from his numerous wives, who all vie with each other in meriting a liberal share of the divided affections of their lord. Woman knows her place in Siam, and there are no such unfrocked specimens of the sex there, as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and others. Polygamy is however, one of the curses of the land, and one of the great barriers to the introduction of the gospel. ”

“ Where the water is unusually deep where a floating house is moored, and the bottom of the river unstable, you will see the tops of the mooring posts made fast by a cable to something firm on shore. Sometimes the whole gives way notwithstanding, and then the house is adrift at the mercy of the tide. The writer was once in a floating house that had got adrift in the night time, and floated down the river many miles before it could be made to submit to the power of the ropes and cables, with which we endeavoured many times in vain to stop her downward way. ”

“ On the outside of the enclosure are houses built for the accommodation of princes, nobles, and all foreigners who may wish to attend, and who are all entertained at the royal expense. Rope dancing, juggling, and every other imaginable feat are also carried on outside. At night, too, those brilliant fireworks, in which the Siamese so much excel, are touched off by the King himself, and are kept up to a late hour every night. ”

“ The people are generally indolent, and lazy, and very much addicted to gambling, which is, perhaps, the ruling vice of the country. At every gambling house groups of men and women may be seen sitting from morning till night, and from night till morning, intently gambling. They will gamble away everything they have, and incur large debts; and then sell their wives, children, and even themselves into slavery, to pay their "debts of honor." They have different kinds of games, but that on which they stake most is a Chinese game called po, and is a kind of dice. ”

“ One evening two of the young lady's brothers met him, and administered to him a sound thrashing.
A man in Siam possesses the prerogative of administering to his wife a little wholesome chastisement, if she fails to fulfil her duties. I have seen a few instances in which I really thought it was deserved, and did good, but as a Christian missionary, and a representative of the free United States, where women are clamoring for the same rights as men, I had to discourage such things under all circumstances. ”

“ The principle food of the Siamese is rice and fish. Fish are very abundant and cheap, and become a wholesome diet for that climate. It is contrary to their religion to take animal life, and they never kill any animals for their own consumption, but they do not scruple to eat anything killed by another, if they can only roll off the responsibility of killing it. They buy pork and fowls which have been killed and dressed by the Chinese. They also eat animals which have died. ”

“ When any one meets a priest, he places the palms of his hands together and raises them to his forehead in reverence.
The duty of the priests is to take care of the religion, recite prayers at funerals, weddings, &c., and preach when called upon to do so. The people frequently invite the priests to their houses to have preaching. The sermons consist chiefly of exhortations to make merit, and are generally in such lofty words and terms, taken from the Pali, that the common people do not understand them.
The Siamese also make pilgrimages to Prabat and other sacred places. ”

“ When our first child was born, and our Siamese friends came to see the little white stranger, finding it to be a girl, the only congratulations they offered were, "tempte Maú tempte," too bad, Doctor, too bad. The shortest time any one can remain in the priesthood is three months, and as much longer as they choose. I have met men who had been in the priesthood over forty years. I have met them also who had been in it a number of times. It is no uncommon thing for a man to leave his wife and family for a short time, and enter the priesthood. ”

“ According to Siamese custom the bridegroom almost invariably goes to live with the parents of the bride, and accordingly puts up a house on their premises, and as near the old mansion as possible. Thus a man who has a number of daughters, finds himself surrounded by a village, by the time they are all married off. The parents of the young lady will answer, "We are by no means affluent, that we could devote much money to that purpose. But allow us to ask, how will it be with the parents of the young man—how much will they be willing to give their son?" ”

“ The Siamese know of no other religion having existed amongst them.
They make merit in Siam in different ways. One prolific source is the building of temples or monasteries. These temples oftentimes cover acres of ground, and besides the regular temple or shrine of the idols, have houses or dormitories for the monks, and other outbuildings. The temples are gaudy, but not magnificent, grand, or massive. They are all accompanied with spires or pagodas, which frequently reach a great height. The temple building proper is filled with idols which are hideous in their appearance. ”