The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1909-08-15
KOHL Z24LAGE Nl1zERE
.O5EL[eSF IS Z2REcSERIED

On either side of the lower rivers and
canals are innumerable floating houses,
built on pontoons or RATS of bamboo
and moored to posts so that they
rise and fall with the tide which, on
account of the gradual slope of the
lowland, is. perceptible at long dis
lance from the coast line. Many of
these floating habitations are shops as
well and have displays of cotton stuffs,
brassware, edibies and curios to at
tract the passerby. In front OF each
house is a platform where the family
cook and eat their meals. The ever
present staple. rice, is steamed over a
charcoal burner, each tender kernel re-
naming intact and faky and the dish
presenting a more inviting appearance
than as we serve it in our country.
Each member of the family eats his
portion with the addition of such con-
diments or bits of dried fish as he may
choose from the complicated array be-
fore him. Some of the larger boats
plying up and down the rivers and
their tributary streams are also shops,
where whole families travel aud bar
ter, cook and sleep. the season through.
Canoes, launches, barges and RATS of
all descriptions crowd the tangled net
population seem amphibious in their
habits. Back from the shore are sta
tionary homes built upon raised plat
forms and showing in their construc-
tion and adornment varying degrees of
prosperity and gentility among the
owners. from the f1imsy shanty of bam-
boo balanced on piles and reached by
ladder to the well supported and COM
Portable matched dwelling with its in
viting veranda and lowering plants, or
the substantial bungalow of the well to
do Chinese merchant or market gar
dener.
The Siamese army is not a well or
ganized or enthusiastic body, the native
inadaptability to concerted effort max
ing 1t likely that in a crisis the soldiers
would scatter and resort to guerrilla
warfare.
The Buddhist priesthood attracts
great numbers OF these indolent and
peaceable Siamese, for the rigors are
largely optional and the emoluments
all sufficient for their modest ambi-
tions All young men of respectable
families are supposed to spend at least
a few months in one of the monasteries.
Their devotions consist mostly of med
itations upon the ethical teachings of
Buddha.
Each mans salvation depends upon
himself and many become devout as
cetics but no stern system of sacra-
fees or penances is enforced. A dom
ming of the yellow robe, perusal of the
sacred writings, and an air of abstrac-
ton set the inmate or the wat" sew
eral degrees above his fellows of the
outer world. His sincerity in choos-
ing to remain there for life and his
progress toward spiritual salvation are
not matters for the casual observer to-
ascertain, but are likely to be gagged
by his growing preference for solitude
and silence. The brother of the pres
ent king has long been a faithful monk.
A number of religious festivals oc-
cur in the Siamese calendar. giving
vent to the popular desire to render
homage by means of pretty and pleas
ing ceremonies. which if not what we
should term devout are yet quite
harmless Their origin and observance
can scarcely be said to bear any direct
relation to the abstract truths which
Buddha laid down.
Primitive schools are maintained in
connection with the watts all boys
being expected to attend for few
hours daily, and the government insti-
tutions of learning established at
Bangkok and other cities have not in
terfered with their work.
In Siamese music there is said by
students of 1t to be definite though
curious, tonal system, by which the
octave is divided into seven equal
parts, so that each interval consists of
one and five-sevenths semi tones It
viii thus be seen that with our nota-
ton 1t would be impossible to repro
duce their airs at all accurately.
Among the natives there is no written
music it is all traditional. The var
ious instruments used In their bands
are of softer tone and their ensemble
playing far less offensive to the occi-
dental ear than is the case with the
shrill and discordant Chinese orches-
tras.
Concerning the origin and history of
these people ethnologists are not wholly
agreed, for in view of the successive
migrations, encounters and fusions
which took place among the prehistoric
races of Asia, 1t is often difficult to
trace a given strain with certainty.
But it has been confidently asserted
that the ancestors of the present Siam
csc were the powerful Tai-Shans, who
at the beginning of the Christian era
dwelt in what is now southwestern
China, and that, though long separated
from the central tribes of that country,
they were of Monaghan stock. Migrating
still farther to the southwark to escape
from the Chinese, who were advancing
upon them, they eventually spread over
the territory now known as Siam.
Here they were influenced both by con-
tact with the Cambodians, earlier
Corners who had set up a powerful
kingdom on the east, and by the civdli-
zation and religion of the Hindus, who
came from the west to trade with them.
Their language. once polysyl1abic, has
become monosyllabic, and as in Chinese.
graduations of tone are used to indi-
cate differences in meaning. p. A.
Thompson, author of Lotus Land"
states that there are five tones in
Siamese and practically no infection,
and also that many of their words are