tributed to their being of one invariable form,
and the consequent dexterity which the artificers
acquire by frequent practice. This form
has not varied for at least one hundred and
thirty years, for the figure of one given by La
Loubere is an exact representation of those in use
at the present day.
The Siamese also receive their utensils of zinc
and brass from China, and the resident Chinese
are the only manufacturers of articles of tin, although
a product of the country. I t is through
the ingenuity of the same people, that the stores
of iron-ore, in which the country abounds, have
been of late years rendered available. A t present,
a considerable quantity of malleable iron is
produced, and at Bang-kok there are several extensive
manufactories' of cast-iron vessels, wholly
conducted by the Chinese, and from which the
Malay tribes are now very generally supplied
with culinary utensils. The cutlery and tools in
use amongst, the Siamese are of the rudest and
simplest description, and they have not even acquired,
any skill in the fabrication of implements
of destruction, a circumstance to be expected
among an unarmed and unwarlike people. The
fabrication of fire-arms has scarcely, I believe,
been attempted ; and for these the Siamese appear
always to have trusted to the casual supply
derived directly or indirectly from Europeans.
The manufacture of silk and cotton fabrics
is in Siam abandoned wholly to the women,
and very little skill is displayed in either; both
being of a very coarse and homely texture, and
greatly inferior even to the corresponding manufactures
of the island of Java and Celebes, prepared
under similar circumstances. The art of
dyeing is on the same low scale, and this is the
more remarkable, since the country abounds in
the materials necessary to it. The art of printing
silks or cottons is not practised by the
Siamese in any shape or form.
The most common description of coarse pottery
suited for ordinary domestic purposes, is manufactured
by the Siamese, but all the ordinary
and better descriptions of porcelain are imported
from China, and in large quantities.
The useful architecture of the Siamese is in
a very humble state of advancement. The habitations
of the lower orders consist always of
simple and perishable materials,, suitable enough,
perhaps, to their climate, and certainly so to their
poverty and incapacity of extending the sphere
of their enjoyments. In the low alluvial lands,
where we had an opportunity of observing their
dwellings, they were all raised upon piles, like
the habitations of the Malays, the principal material
employed in them being the bamboo, and
the leaf of the Nipa palm (N ip a fruticans). In
the higher lands, the houses, I am told, cease
t6 be built on piles, and the bamboo and nipa