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SUM.

^"People whe want to go from Singapore

to Siam must take any ship they can get, rand be thankful. M. de Beauvoir got ^probably one of the worst that ever floated, \maà isjjoth thankful and merry, after the ;iact, about his voyage in that " singular, dangerous, and ill-smelling vessel the Chow Pya," which was overladen with a verV unpleasant cargo, piled about the deck anyhow; whose crew, and much "worse, whose cooks, were Chinese ; where lthe bill of fare was restricted to eggs fin* the green stage, stale cocoa-nut oil, ancPdecomposedpine-apples ; whose capt. was a pardoned pirate of a vessel, which was entirely overrun with white ants, and whose mate and chief engineer were brought on board just before the time of sailing, dead-drunk and handcuffed. The Mark Tapley of travellers and of writers gives these little particulars in the cheeriest tone, and adds :

" Among our companions are a merchant re- turning to Siam, an old Frenchwoman and her cat, and a young Asiatic baby placed under the protection of the Prince and myself by a bene- volent priest. The baby's name is Ludovic Lamache. We nurse him by turns, and are most anxious to hand him over in good case to his father, who was formerly coxswain of a French corvette, and is now generalissimo of the armies of the King of Siam. The child is plum-juice colour, and, if he had not a coral and bells of the noisiest kind, and if he had a more maritime stomach, especially at meal- times, ne would be delightful. I am holding him on one knee at this moment, while I write on the other, endeavouring to preserve the equilibrium of my camp-stool, amid the tumb- ling packages, and he and I are both devoured by multitudes of our little enemies. It is no consolation to us that when they bite us they leave their heads in the wounds. This is our fifth day of this queer existence amidships, which is, however, paradisiacal in comparison with that of the three hundred;} passengers, Malay, Chinese, and Arab, who are fore and a ft, piled up in heaps npon the isles of merchandise which rise above the water we are 'constantly shipping. They smoke opium, and they play with dice; these are the two characteristic vices of their races, and as they are heavily taxed on land, they devote themselves to them on sea with an mdescribable"eagerness. This human ant-heap, which exhales most deleterious odours, is noisy, disgusting, and cowardly. At every high wave they all scieam as if we were going to the bottom, then howl out verses from the Koran, get drunk, and fight freely."

The second King of Siam, who had not since beeureplaced, and died ten months previously, and the first strange sample of the manners of Siam noticed by the travellers, after they had landed and delivered up the plum-coloured baby to his father, was a long line of dismantled ships, permitted to fall into decay in honour of the deceased prince, who had occupied himself with maritime matters, and cherished a dream, never to be ful- filled, of going to Singapore with his squadron. For the greatest personage in the realm, as for the meanest fellah, the custom is inexorable; all that was personal property of the dead is given over to the lengthsome death of abandon- ment and decay. After the dead king's ships come the " punishment kiosks " of his living Majesty, Mongkut, a long row of bamboo buildings, within which sub- jects who have offended his Majesty have

" their souls transferred into the brain of a white sparrow" by the knife of the executioner ; and then, behind a bend of the river Mé-nam, the town of Bangkok appears in its astonishing splendour and grandeur, unsurpassed, according to M. de Beauvoir, who ought to know, in the

world :

" Over a space of eight miles, the great city spreads its marvels. The river is wide and majestic ; more than sixty great ships anchor upon its bosom ; it shores are formed by rows of several thousands of floating houses, whose roofs, whose fantastic roofs, form long lines, and whose inhabitrnts look like brilliant water plants in their many-colouied garments. Be- hind and above this foremost city of amphibious beings on terra firma is the Royal city, with its crenelated walls and its white towers, whence hundreds oí pagodas lift their golden spires towards heaven, and their multitudinous domes enamelled in china and glittering crystals. On the right and left, the entire horizou is formed of roofs of cut glass, in five orsixetageaj of turrets of grçyttntic masonry, covered with a sheen which dazzles the eyes; and oí lofty shafts springing two hundred feet into the air, which indicate the King's palace, a palace which, like an immense prism, îeflects all the rays of the sun. It seems to us that we are ?gazing on a'^vast panorama of porcelain cathedrals. Our first si»ht of Bangkok sur- passed all we had hoped in our travellers' dreams. We are impatient to find ourselves in a gondola traversing those animated canals, the boulevards of the floating city, and which are iull of movement, noise, and life."

Java, indeed, is far East, but Siam is pure, unmixed Asia, with its stamp of brilliancy and strangeness, its curious perfumes, its'types without amalgama- tion, its manners utterly free from any admixture of our civilisation, its people who bave^adopted only the simplest ex- pression of clothing, but who are, even to the unweaned infants, laden with jewels and with flowers. The travellers, who had not yet seen Canton, were susceptible of astonishment, ëvënT atter Java, at the swarming population which fills the thousands of laden boats, and the countless kiosk-like houses, each one a separate island. What strange houses! At the end of each is a little altar of carved wood, surrounded with illuminated papers ; lighted torches impregnated with incense and cocoa-nut oil placed in lachrymatories of red clay burn unceas- ingly before statues of Buddha and the household gods ; and further off, tubs filled with indigo or pink lime aro ranged upon the surrounding mat-covered ter-

race.

It is well to enjoy to the utmost the picture which M. de Beauvoir draws of this marvellous city and kingdom, for 'when he passes on to the moral aspects ^of ^life, the habits and the prospects of the people, there is much which must "pain all but the most hardened and cynical readers. We gladly linger among the pagodas, of which he says in general: til" Having since visited Canton, Shan- ghai, and Pekin, I retain my impression that the finest pagoda in those cities is tö^the least, of those in the kingdom of Siam ^Kha^Quimperlè1- is to Paris," a

^proverbial standard of coia l^gHereJis^a^ldescriptiojn of - the ' 'ïdîdrarid"cháracWri8tic of "those

9tt temples/ served by mendip

cant but well-born Budphist priests, called talapoins, from among whose num- ber the present King of Siam passed without any intermediate stage-from the rigour and the isolation which the author describes, to an existence of in- credible luxury and boundless power :

"The pagoda is on the right bank of the river, surrounded by green and majestic woods. It consists of a cluster of turrets dominated by a central pyramid three hundred feet high. This is formed at its base of a conical block, with a hundred and fifty steps ; then it becomes a hexagonal tower, with windows supported by three white elephants' trunks ; then rises from a crown of turrets a single graceful column, which at the summit rounds itself into a cupola, from whence a spire of gilded bronze spreads forth twenty giant branches, and seems to pierce the clouas. When the sun is shining the whole of this is one glittering mass, the coloured enamel of burnished porcelain, the shining of millions of varnished designs, standing out from a surface of alabaster, lend to this pagoda-of a style puro, brilliant, and not to be seen elsewhere under heaven-the magic of a dream, with the colossal lines of reality,"

The promontory on which it stands is like a separate city of heaped-up kiosks, painted belvederes, Italian terraces, and statues of pink marble and red porphyry. But when the the travellers land from their pirogue, and enter the lanes and

ditches which lie beneath the sacred

ramparts, they perceive the reverse of this magnificent spectacle. Here, walk- ing about with measured steps, is a mul- titude of men, with shaven heads and eyebrows, dressed in long Roman togas of saffrom-coloured stuff, These are the " talapoins." Each holds in one hand an iron pot, and in the other the " tala pat," or large palm-leaf fan, the distinc- tive symbol of their dignity. The lanes in which they live are horribly dirty, and their huts are made of broken bricks or

rotten planks. In these places, which might pass for the drains of the porce- lain palaces above, 700 talapoins looked at the travellers with contemptuous in- difference, a sentiment apparently shared by some 1,500 ragged boys, who are enfants de cliceur and who vegetate in those dens, covered with vermin, toge- ther with geese, pigs, fowls, and stray dogs, which are supposed to find sanc- tuary there, but are all cheerfully eaten. The lives of these men furnish a painful chapter of this delightful book, as the interior of the great pagoda contrasts horribly with the beauty of the exterior. There is another wonderful pagoda, that of Xetuphon, which is approached by avenues of immense length, lined by regiments of monsters in marble, encased with coloured crystals, and representing women springing from the crests of gi- gantic cocks, three-headed elephants, winged crocodiles, tigers with serpents' -tails, and in which is lodged, under a colonnade of sculptured teak-wood, an image of Buddha, which measures fifty yards from the shoulders to the soles of the feet. This figure lies upon its right side, on a gilded terrace ornamented with sculptures which forms its bed. Its head, which rises twenty-five yards above the ground, is supported by the right arm. The left arm is stretched along the thigh, the eyes are silver, the lips are pink enamel, and on the head is a crown of red gold. The travellers were like Liliputians beside Gulliver, as they stood in the rich, subdued, many-coloured light, beside this gigantic figure in solid mason jy, entirely covered with gold ; and when they climbed upon it, venturesome in the solemn, gorgeous solitude, they tumbled out of sigbt into its nostrils. Neither was so tall as one of the god's finger-nails. " We stood confounded," says M. de Beauvoir, " in the presence of this Titanic structure, whose architect it must have taken the treasure of Croesus to pay. No worship has ever elicited such a display of wealth; this golden garb is of the purest metal and worth milliards ; each plate of gold-and there are thousands-is two feet square, and weighs 450 ounces."

After the pagodas and the King's palace, of which and the superb stables for the royal stud of elephants the author gives a fascinating description, the bazaar of the floating town is of the gseatest in- terest. Here one learns from the things which form their food the life and habits of the people. First, there is the supply of pink paste which is chewed all day by every Siamese man and woman, and which is composed of betel, aseca nut, tobacco, and lime. It is a stimulant of the most insidious kind, and makes the teeth quite black, which the Siamese hold to be essential to beauty. A short time before the .Frenchman's visit, the King permitted two sisters of St. Vincent, accompanied by an American lady, whose husband he'prudently left at the door, to see the eight hundred ladies who compose his harem. The King gallantly led the American lady_back tojher husband^ to whom, he savcÇ-" What a fine woman ! She is really very handsome, but how unfortunate it is that she should be so disfigured by having white teeth !" The market of-fruit and vegetables is not re- pulsive, but the fish market offers for sale principally sharks, monstrous eels, a hor- rible kind of ray which bites furiously, and " portions" of serpents of the boa kind. Père Lamandu, of the " Mission," assured his compatriots that the flesh of the boa is very good eating, but they did not test the assertion. The fish is brought to market in reservoir-boats, and kept alive until the sale. " But," says the author, " a Siamese purchaser would regard it as criminal to kill them by putting a knife into their gills, because of the metempsychosis, so he only allows them to die by exposing them to the air." The chief article of food, the un- varying delight of the Siamese, is an aw- ful compound called "kapi," heaps of which came in the way of the visitors to the market. " Kapi" is composed of the spawn of shrimps pickled in wooden tubs until it has reached a state of putrid fer- mentation ; then it is crushed under the feet of the operators, in a round dance, into a sickening kind of putty, which is the dainty-dish par excellence of every one* in every rank of life. Not the least curious feature of this bazaar is the shop

where Chinese, sell " articles de Paris," and toys from the fair at St. Cloud, close beside a jeweller's booth where [priceless gems and workmanship of inconceivable beauty are displayed at prices 'which in general far exceed the means of foreign purchasers. The wealth of Siam is im- mense, that is evident to strangers in everything, and especially on visiting the gambling-houses, of which M. de Beau- voir gives a most interesting description. We have not space to transcribe it, or many other passages equally attractive, of a book which almost merits ^he treat- ment which Sidney Smith said every author expects at the hands of a friendly reviewer,-" Everything praised and the whole quoted." What a picture he sug- gests, and how some of his countrymen would paint it, as he describes group after group around the scarlet cloth, where there is the tinkling of a ceaseless rain of gold. He ends it with this strik- ing passage :-" See, these are slaves who come to risk the coins of the poor, the little shells called * conchs of Venus,' a thousand worth five sous. At the bottom of the tent, almost outside, in a framework of verdure gilded by the sun, groups of young girls, eager, breathless, slaves who have escaped" for an hour, half dressed when they come in, fre- quently stripped of all their clothing before they leave. Tb ey hold themselves a little above the floor, their loins straightened, their arms and elbows serv- ing them for supports, their heads and necks stretched out convulsively, their little feet swinging in the air, a ¡id their slender, elegantly moulded bodiifc shud- dering at every cast of the dice'l Who knows? The purchase of their]liberty

may depend upon a happy chaine, the escapade of an hour may secure t í-e free-

dom of a life."

A splendid festival was in preparation at Bangkok when the French tr ^vellera reached that mysterious city, a «estival

destined to last seven days, to |o pre-

sided over by the King in pers'ln, the ground to be kept by the famous ele- phants, in their war panoply ; showers of

bouquets, all containing golden \ coins, were to fall from the royal hand amid salvoes of artillery ; games, incense,!feast ing, dances, and processions we^-to gladden the people of a whole -rçeek. And the cause, the origin, the reasoi for all this ? Nothing less than a funeral ! The body of the late second King! de- ceased ten months since, was to be pub- licly burned in two more months, ¿mid popular rejoicings on the grandest ¿ale. Meantime, he is held in all possible honour, and the Due de Penthièvrdand and M. de Beauvoir were solemnly pre- sented to his Majesty, a scene winch, next to the incremation of Siamese i^i the cemetry, if it may so be called, the aijthor

declares to have been the most, cunous

which they witnessed in Siam, liter the king's death, a number of extraordin- ary ceremonies having been performed, his corpse was dried by mercury, land when it was as dry as a stick, itiwas doubled in two, the feet and the Bead

were jammed together, it was doublej in

two, it was tied up like a sausage, and deposited in a golden urn on t:xe top of a magnificent catafalque. Tb this bottled Majesty the strangers pail their respects previously to visiting tte Sacred Elephant, the seventy-two child- ren of the first King, the regiment <f Amazons, the royal pagoda, where tile

inat$ are of woven silver, and where there is a statue of Buddha of the lengfh of a man whose head is one solid emerall, surmounted by a helmet of sapphire atd opal ; and lastly, Mongkut himself :

"Amid the grand colonnades of his palao hundreds of mandarins are walking abo formerly his civil and military officers

pass underweight porticoes, slaves draw ba;

vast curtain, we are in the throneroom. Th dead King, in his urn atop of his altar, holdi his Court precisely as he held it in life. We are told to bow-we do^ so-great satisfaction of the mandarins in lines on the left and right their faces on the ground, all in white, which is mourning. One of the pages goes to the catafalque, and takes from it some huge cigars, which he biings'to us in a basket of red filigreei He whispers some words, which are translated for us to mean that he offers them on the part

of the second King, and is about to light thenj at a funeral taper. Long silken cords of whitq and gold extend from the lid of the golden urt in all directions, like the threads of a spider'ej web, and at the extremity of each is a mandari] in adoration. They believe that these cord bear their words and prayers to the King, an they press them to their lips with lively fait) and emotion. Lastly, a great golden baske stands upon the first step of the mausoleum filled with letters and petitions addressed t< the deceased since last week ; and the repliei

are confidently expected. The entire spectacle is incomparably strange, stupifying, and enchanting ; and as we make profound reve îences to his bottled Majesty, we gravely thank him for his gracious reception and his excellent cigars, and hope that he may bum as well as they do. All this time his harem is kept up precisely as during his lifetime. At sunrise_

and sunset- hundreds of women com« to talk, by means of the white and golden cords, to this calm and inoffensive husband. They will cease to belong to him only on the day of his fiery burial, and it is fully understood that not one of them is expected to,/ immolate herself upon the funeral pile."

That funeral pile, or rather pagoda,/ was a splendid, enormously costly struc- ture, one of the great sights of Bangkok. It was a huge artificial mountain, covered with gilding, raised upon a scaffold of] teak-wood, 150 feet high, to make which the finest trees of the forests of the in- terior had been dragged thither by thousands of coolies. Grottoes, flower- beds, waterfalls, rocks, made of papier mache, and covered with leaves of red copper, gold, Bornean antimony, and platinum, stud the ascent, which is also adorned with huge vases of mother-of pearl. A winding path makes five cir- cuits of the,mountain, guarded at every step by porcelain dogs, gilded dragons, and peacocks in cut glass. All these glitter almost unendurably in the rajs of tha sun, dazzling with countless colours. The kiosk at the summit, in which| the body of the deceased King was U be placed, was not finished, but already 122 pounds oÇ pure gold had been expeided 'on the gilding of this mere detail. |The

funeral mountain was erected in front of the late King's seraglio, and from behind

bouk

a latticed balcony, thrown out for the purpose, the harem watched the proceed- ings, and were to behold the final spec- tacle. The two audiences of King Mong kut, the sight of the harem, the ludicrous and yet melancholy spectacle of the sacred White Elephant, the visit to the burning-places of the Siamese public, in short, all the remaining wonders which the indefatigable travellers contrived to see in the seven days which they passed in Siam, we can but indicate, referring the reader to the book which M. de Beau- voir did well to write day by day, under the immediate influence of the astonish ishing facts and contrasts of Siam.

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