Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/19

 SIAM 11 plants, herbs, and roots ; sapan, fustic, indi- go, and other dyes ; the lofty silk-cotton tree, with its soft silky floss for mattresses, but too brittle for the loom ; the bamboo, the rattan, and the atap, together forming the material of three fourths of the houses ; the teak, with other ship and house timbers ; iron, red, and white woods, rose woods, and ebony; the banian, and the sacred fig tree. The animal kingdom is no less varied and interesting. Most celebrated is the white elephant, a dark-cream albino, prized and honored as very rare, and when captured belonging to the king. The national standard is a white elephant on a crim- son ground, and the royal seal, medals, and money bear the same device. Albino deer, monkeys, and even tortoises are sometimes found, and the natives believe white animals to be the abode of transmigrating souls. The elephants of Siam attain a size and strength unsurpassed in other countries, and are much prized throughout India. Among other ani- mals are the rhinoceros, tiger, leopard, bear, pangolin, otter, musk civet, wild hogs, ourang outangs and other apes, monkeys, and deer ; dogs and cats, wild and domestic, are innu- merable. The forests abound in peacocks, pheasants, pigeons, and other birds; aquatic birds of all kinds are numerous ; the sea swal- low which produces the edible nest is common. Among the reptiles are the crocodile, turtle, python, cobra de capello, numerous other snakes, and several varieties of lizards. Fish are plentiful, but of poor quality. The most noteworthy insect is the coccus ficus, which produces the lac of commerce by punctures in resinous trees. Gold, copper, iron, tin, and lead all abound, in great purity ; but by rea- son of the rudeness of working, the jealousy toward foreigners, and the fevers and hard- ships of the jungle, their vast wealth is com- paratively undeveloped. Antimony, zinc, sul- phur, and arsenic also exist, and silver in com- bination. Salt is largely manufactured by so- lar evaporation, and saltpetre less so. Mining, previously under the strict surveillance of gov- ernment, and carried on chiefly by Chinese, has recently excited some interest among Eu- ropeans. Kubies, spinel, corundum, sapphire, amethyst, garnet, topaz, and other precious stones are found. According to the French consul Gamier at Bangkok (1874), the popula- tion of Siam proper and its Laos dependencies is composed of 1,800,000 Siamese, 1,500,000 Chinese, 1,000,000 Laos, 200,000 Malays, 50,000 Cambodians, 50,000 Peguans, and 50,000 Ka- rens and others. The Siamese are of Mongo- lian origin and Laos or Shyan descent. They are olive-colored and of medium height. The head is large, face broad, forehead low, cheek bones prominent, jaw bones in retreat very divergent ; mouth capacious, lips thick, nose heavy, and eyes black and without the Chinese turn of the lid. The teeth are stained black, and sometimes serrated. The hair is all plucked from the face in youth, and the most of the head is shaved bi-monthly. A black bristling tuft 4 or 5 in. broad and 2 in. high is left on the top ; that of the women, whose hair is only closely cut, is often encircled by a thread of bare skin whence two or three hairs' breadths have been uprooted. The dress consists of a cotton waist cloth (to which women add a silk shoulder scarf), a jacket for the cold, and a straw hat for the sun. Children under seven or eight years old are clad only in jewels, fig leaves, flowers, and turmeric. Priests, with head entirely shaven and uncovered, wear sev- eral yellow robes of cotton and silk. Kings and nobles on state occasions wear silk and gold brocades and high conical hats. The Si- amese are indolent, greedy, and untruthful, intemperate, servile, and superstitious. At the same time they are peaceable and polite, decorous in public, and affectionate to kin- dred and kind to the poor and imbecile. The dwellings are of one story, partly to prevent the indignity of another's walking over the head. They consist of huts, built on piles, of bamboo, roofed and sided with atap leaf ; boats, serving also as peddling stalls or vehi- cles; floating houses, of panelled teak, rising and falling with the tide on bamboo rafts ; and palaces, of white stuccoed brick, adorned with gilding, carving, painting, foreign furni- ture, pictures, gold, silver, china, and glass. These palaces are not of Chinese, but rather of Indian architecture, and they often occupy several acres, with the dwellings of the wives, the quarters of the servants, and the grounds, which are paved, shaded, adorned with flow- ers, and enclosed by high walls. Marriage takes place as early as 18 for males and 14 for females, without the aid of magistrates or priests, though the latter may be present to make prayers, and especially to feast and to receive presents. The number of wives, ordi- narily one, in the palaces reaches scores and hundreds ; but the first is the wife proper, to whom the rest are subject. Social distinctions are very numerous, and in the law are repre- sented numerically, from 100,000 for the sec- ond king down to 5 for the lowest slave. Be- fore " the lord of life " on the throne, far above numerical representation, all crawl and crouch, or, with head bowed to the ground, lie " dust at the sacred feet." Prince is approached by noble, noble by lord, lord by master, &c., each with body bent, eyes prone, and hands folded and raised to the forehead or above the head, giving and receiving homage. An annual ser- vice of three months is paid to the king by all, save the Chinese triennially taxed. One third of the common people, it is largely es- timated, are slaves by birth, by gambling or other debts, by redemption from the penalty of crime, by capture, &c. Men sell their chil- dren, their wives, or themselves ; convicts in scores clank their chains about the streets; villages of thousands are made up of foreign captives. Yet Siamese life is in the main com- fortable, and is moreover gladdened by many