St. Landry democrat., 1884-05-10
SIAM AND ITS PEOPLE.

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Siam is a wonderfully interesting
country. II is part of what is called
Indo- China, and is nearly as large a
our State of Texas. The country con
sists for the most part of mountains
| swamps and jungles. The great rive
Meinam trarerses its center, and inun
dates the valley through which it runs
| Wild animals abound in Siam, and o.
these the elephant is the most famous
1t is highly priced, being really indis.
pensable in threading the jungles Be.
fore the introduction of firearms ele-
| plants were used for war, but now they
are chiefly valued for transportation.
In President Lincoln's time the King
of Siam, thai is, the father of the pres
ent King, showed his kindly feeling to-
ward the American people by writing a
| long letter to our Government, in which
he proposed to send donation of sew
eral pairs of. elephants to stock the for
ests of the South. He recommended
them as beasts of burden, and sable to
travel through woods and iungles
where no eart-roads had yet been
made and proceeded at length to
give u40SttouS AOA Iue1L CtL6 duA
culture.
The sacred white elephant, which is
not really white, but sort of light ma
hogany color, is SAID to be var ETY. pc
culiar to Siam. The flag of Siam is
white elephant on red ground. The.
animal itselfis an object OF generation,
being considered to be the incarnation
of future ,Buddh. He has building
to himself connected with the palace,
and ten or twelve keepers to wait on
him. He is fed upon fresh grass and
bananas served in rich dishes, and is
covered with ornaments, his tusks be-
ing encircled with rings of pure gold.
The people of Siam number about
five millions. of whom less than half
are Siamese, the remainder being Chi
nese, Malays. and Laos. They are for
the most part ignorant and degraded.
Their religion is Buddhism, and it's
priests are lazy, mercenary and corrupt
men, and its temples are often the CEN
tiers of vice. Yet there is much that is
interesting shout the Siamese. They
are affectionate in their families, are
witty in conversation, and are less
given to falsehood than most Oriental
people. They are very fond of play,
and spend half their time in amuse-
ments. Asa result, the a0ork of the
country has gone largely out of their
hands. The energetic, ubiquitous John
Chinaman has stepped over into the
possessions OF his self-indulgenWneigh-
Dor, and has quietly availed himself of
the latter's unimproved opportunities.
Having absorbed the commerce of the |
country and much of its productive lis
dustry, it looks as ii he might before
long obtain the Government as well.
The Government of Siam is a hered- |
itary monarchy, and there are two
Kings re gning together The first or
supreme King, as he calls himself, is /
the real and absolute ruler. The second I
King has his own palace, and disposes
of one-third of the revenue, but has no /
real voice in the Government. The
late Kings. who were brothers, were
quite remarkable men, and seem to
have possessed plenty of the energy
and industry usually lacking in the
Siamese character. Before coming to
the throne the first King was a Bud
dhist priest, and devoted himself TO
study. He was a very enthusiastic as
tronomer, and in fact came to his death
in 1868 in consequence of exposure and
excitement in3viewing a solar eclipse,
which he had himself accurately calcu-
lated. 1t is evident that he was less
well-informedI regarding sections of this
mundane sphere than Of the motions of
the heavenly bodies, since it was he
who proposed to visit herd of ele-
plants upon the dominions of Uncle
Sam. He was very pedant;c and self
conceited, and prfded himself on his
knowledge of English, which he used
in q very amusing manner The sec
ond King was equally able and more
practical, deyoting himself to military
matters and to natural science. Both
Of the Kings were led by their thirst for
knowledge to cultivate friendly relations
with the American missionaries. Among
the latter there were some who had
practical acquaintance with various me-
ehanical arts, and these the two broth
ers frequently called to their aid. They
we're eager to introduce al the inn
OF advanced civilization, al
though they rejected the religion from
whent that civilization springs.
Travellers tell OF the odd contrasts of
lew methods W tn ancient barbaric GUS
A.oL 10 II. =. /