Page:Siam and the Siamese.pdf/9

Rh daunt their "Golden Tagus", though gold is no longer found in its sands. We have all heard of the love of the people of Egypt for the Nile; and one of the most emphatic benedictions I remember is that, when I gave three or four pence to a poor Arab woman for holding my horse, she said, "May you always be blessed by Allah as he blessed the sources of the Nile." So in India the Ganges is regarded as blessed by the Godhead and as blessing those who have had the privilege of dying on its shores. I have seen Christians, Mahommedans, and Jews bathing together in the waters of the Jordan, and uniting in common thanksgiving that they have been permitted to enjoy so great a glory. Chinese poetry is full of the Yang-tze-Kiang — "the Son of the Ocean." Nor are these feelings confined to the ancient world: the Americans of the North sing the praises of their Missisippi [sic] and Missouri; and those of the South of the Amazon and the Plate. The Siamese call their Meinam the "Mother of Waters." When we reached the mouth of that river, we were told "you must not enter it with your ships of war." So the King sent down a fleet of the most splendid galleys, like coronetted dragons, beautifully gilt and painted; and I was told to "Come up in these galleys, and abandon your ships of war." I said, "I shall accept your attention and come in your galleys, and the ships shall follow; and you must tell your people that I am coming as a friend and not as a foe." And the King issued a proclamation declaring that we were coming not as an enemy to humiliate, but as a friend to extend friendship. We had many difficulties as to receptions and invitations, but the King requested me to come to meet him in his palace at midnight. A magnificent palace it is. He said, "I want to see you as a friend, and now I wish you to assent to one condition: in your country people wear swords in the presence of the Sovereign, but that is against our custom." I said, "Undoubtedly I am bound to pay your Majesty all the attention that I pay to my own Queen, and the wearing of a sword is a point of etiquette." He said, "It is never the case at our Court." But I was able to give evidence that the point had been con­ ceded at the reception of the ambassadors of Louis XIV.; and the King allowed that, as the British Queen was at least as great a Sovereign as the French King, her envoys had a claim to every honor which had ever been granted And so I and my suite were received in the Great Hall, standing erect and wearing our swords, while the Siamese dignitaries lay prostrate on their faces, and not one of them dared to lift his head to the King, who sat upon a superb throne. The ceremonies being over, the King asked me to come to him in the palace. I went and found the King of Siam (whom a short time before I had seen encumbered with the robes of royalty, with bright gems glittering from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet) with nothing on him but his shirt. He had a child upon his knee, and the only thing it wore was a garland of white flowers upon its head. I contrasted the grandeur and glory of the Monarch with the simplicity and the affection of the tender parent, and the latter appeared to me more worthy of homage than the potent King. I spoke of the