The weekly Butte record., 1862-02-15
Siam and Siamese

Siam has no cities No strong built, wefor
tifed elegantly-eonstructed towns and cities,
with suburbs and suburban villas. The Pagan
in Hiudosian riyalled in the architecture Of his
temple the most splendid efforts Of Greece in
her sunniest days.
/ The Tai Mahl was something exquisite in
I the conception of the brain that first conceived
+ its existence in embryo. China and Japan
have noble specimens also OF architectural
beauty. and all Christendom and the Ottoman
Empire have something to show in The shape
of what constitutes q city.
The tent Of the Arab Of the desert and the
floating house of the Siamese are very much
assimila,ed. Now they are swallowed up in
the vortex Of some town or city constituting
an item either central or suburban. Now they
are isolated and lonesome. In fact, the Siam
ese may be called the Bedouins of the river.
While the Arabs faith clings tightly to his
mare, on whose back he may feetly traverse
the sandy wastes, pursuing or pursued, the
/ Siamese relics upon the excellence and swift
ness of his canoe, which constitutes his all in
all, whether for pleasure or for flight or for
the remurerat;ve services it renders him in
fishing, or in the conveyance and vending of
the produce of the soil.
As in the desert we may encounter the soll-
tary tent of an Arab, his spear stuck into the
ground and his well-beloved mare fastened
thereto so, in desolate portions of the Menam
are to be encountered single floating houses,
with the Indispensable canoe chained 10 the
front, and here, IN fishing or some other occu-
patton, the inhabitants pass the time in undis-
turbed tranquility.
The capital of Sam, Bangkok, is nothing
more nor less than congregation of wooden
huts or cabins floating upon strongly construc-
ted bamboo RATS, any score or two of which
may at any given moment be loosed from their
moorings and shift the scene of their future
homes either farther up or lower down the
river, thus weakening the city in the number
of lis houses and Inhabitants. Or else as is
not unoften the case, some thousand ton ship
or junk of huge proportions swings suddenly 10
the tide, carrying away small colony of hou-
seS, which drift away rapidly, 10 the astonish-
ment and terror Of the yelling inmates. With
the exception of few palaces and watts, q
few monumental pillars and European residen-
ees, Bangkok has nothing substantial about it,
and some unusual flood tides might any night
sweep away the greater mass of houses and
population, and leave the astonished inmates
of the more solid fabrics on terra .frmd posi-
lively alone in their glory. That people so
lodged should be almost amphibious in their
natures cannot be a matter of surprise. The
first duty of man, and of woman also in Siam,
is to learn TO swim, and infants barely able TO
toddle about take to the water as kindly as
young ducklings They may be said to be
scrupulously clean people if often lavations are
a proof thereof, for one half of the day, ex-
cepting during the monsoons, they are pad
ding and swimming about men, women and
children, heterogeneously mixed up, and desti-
tute OF any sense of delicacy or shame as they
almost are Of clothing.
Yet with all this it cannot be said that the
Siamese are an immoral people indeed in
this respect, they are far superior to the na~.
tives Of the continent of India, and there is
much more of simplicity and gentleness about
their dispositions, and none of that crafty
treachery and revenge which is the prominent
feature of the Malays, TO whom in every other
respect they bear close resemblance.
As rule, admitting Of very few exceptions
indeed, the Siamese, both men and women, are,
short OF stature, but remarkably sinewy and
strong about the legs and arms. Their com,
/ plexion varies, according to their exposure to,
the sun, from light fawn color to deep cop
per, verging sometimes upon bronze. They
have all fat faces with high cheek bones, small
sharp eyes, fiat spreading noses with large nos
trils, but, generally speaking, very fair mouths
with beautiful white teeth. which the women
disgustingly disfgure, according TO their no.
tions Of beauty by dyeing into jet black with
/ the aid Of bete nut.
/ Both men and women shave the head, leav-
ing only an upright tuft Of hair sticking up
just in the centre of their low beetle browed.
| foreheads.
Their costumes consist, from the King down.
ward, of a loose punjunnah, or SKIRT which.
iastens round the waist and hangs to just be-
low the knees. Unmarried girls wear in addi-
tion to this loose white scarf flung over the.
/ shoulders so as to conceal the sast
/ Indeed, the costume of the Siamese women.
is precisely the same, excepting only the head
dress, as the Nayar women in the Travancore-
districts the great difference in their personal
beauty, however. is immense.
/ A GENTLEMAN while taking drive through
/ one of our country towns, accompanied By his
( Irish servant, had the misfortune to have his
vehicle smashed up, and himself and companion
] thrown Violently 10 the ground. by his horse