The Washington times., 1902-10-19


prince OF Siam has attracted much at
tention to the peculiar customs OF mis-
country, and to the traits of the peo-
pie he will some time rule.
Unique among the nations of the ORR
ent. with people at once the most
individuality that has preserved for
them customs, dress, and architecture
wholly unlike the other great nations
surrounding them; light hearted, and
apparently frivolous in many things, yet
with strength that has kept the small
kingdom intact from the Mongolian
hordes on the north and the Hindoo
tribes on the adjacent peninsula, the
Siamese are perhaps the French of the
Orient, and the status OF woman in this
odd little kingdom is as odd and con-
Trajectory as the kingdom itself.
Although the Siamese, like the good
Buddhist he is, strives conscientiously
to lay up enough merit" to save him
in his next reincarnation from arriving
on earth as beast, reptile, or
woman, and though he has full authority
over wife and children to the extent of
killing them If he chooses. yet the
Siamese woman shares all the burdens
of her husband like true heIpmate, not
a slave.
Peculiar Marriage Ceremony.
Woman, indeed, in some respects,
seems to rule in the land of the white
elephant; in all domestic and economic
matters she leads. Marriage is neither
sacrament nor a ceremony in Buddhist
countries; the husband may take more
than one wife. but here he rarely does.
except when he is wealthy; and mar
ried couples are generally faithful and
devoted, rendering the law which gives
SO much power to the husband dead
letter in practice
In Siamese life the lights and shad-
ows are equally strong, at once brilliant
and gloomy, smiling and somber, light
ed as by the radiance of dawn and at the
same time enveloped in the darkness of
night" says Mrs. Leonowens. She wrote
of Siamsse women. but the women she
described were the great ladies of the
court thirty years ago, and the lights
and shadows were indeed high.
There, in the city of the Nang Harm, or
veiled women, the wives of the King,
officered entirely by women, protected
by Amazons, with women for judges and
policemen in its court, with a popula-
tion of 1000 of the weaker sex, from
queens to slaves, the pictures shown
were of the darkest of Oriental despot-
ism, tempered by flashes of sublimest
heroism on the part Of some one or an
other of the inmates that showed the
woman Of Siam, be she princess or
slave, in noble self-sacrifice the peer of
any of her sisters of freer lands and
happier conditions.
The slaves may leave this city; none
others may even step outside its gate.
Into 1t no man may come save the King
and few priests. that the ladies may
have an opportunity to practice charity
in almsgiving. Times are little better
now in the Nang Harm than when Mrs.
Leonowens wrote. but enough is left to
give us the old, familiar picture of
Eastern despotism in harem.
Reigns Over Lower Classes.
But among the middle and lower
classes woman virtually reigns. She
does more than her share Of the wo,x,
but it does not hurt her. Siam is ma
tion of many poor people. and they form
a leisure class of their own. The indo-
lence of life il that tropic land conduces
to beauty, and the burdens of rice or
fruit or water that the girl Of the poorer |
classes carries ON her pretty head make
her 1.-THE and graceful. giving her
a physique noted for it's superb outlines.
The betel with which she disfsures
her teeth is not to European taste, and
it is not easy to judge Of her features,
which are seldom regular. but the woman
of Siam is fine type. She dresses in
exquisite taste. and will perform any
task or even go without food to secure |
another bracelet or ornament In this.
perhaps, she is not so different from
others.
1t is almost crime for girl in that
to be ugly or deformed; when it
happens the ugly girl is made verita
BILE Cinderella, with no hope Of any fairy |
godmother ever to come to the rescue.
She must perform the menial work of
the family and wait upon the better |
favored sisters, who receive all the fine |
dress and jewelry the house affords, and |
who are relied upon to make the family |
fortune by advantageous marriages.
1t is not to be supposed, however, that |
they are frivolous. To the high char
acter of the women of this country all
bear witness. Girls make up
in character what they lack in dress"