wearing arms, the use of which, even under arbitrary
governments, preserves to the individual
some share of self-respect, and habitually accustomed
to the infliction of the lash, it would be
strange, indeed, if it were otherwise. La Lou-
bere insists that “ the determined air of a single
European, with a cane in his hand, is enough
to make a score of them forget the most positive
orders of their superiors and this is saying
every thing of a people accustomed, under
ordinary circumstances, to yield their leaders the
most implicit obedience.
The most distinctive features of the character
of the Siamese, as well as the most unreasonable
and unaccountable, is their national vanity. It
is no exaggerated description of the excess of
this folly, which is given by the Abbé Gervaise,
when he says, that “ they commonly despise other
nations, and are persuaded that the greatest injustice
in the world is done to them when their
pre-eminence is disputed.” During our residence
in Siam, we could obtain, neither by intreaty nor
promise of reward, the services of the lowest of
the people for menial purposes. On the day on
which we were presented at court, it was made
a matter of special favour to grant us a few
bearers to carry our palanquins or litters, and
it was with great difficulty that we afterwards
obtained, and at exorbitant prices, a few rowers
for our boats. The lowest peasant considers himself
superior to the proudest and most elevated
subject of any other country. They speak openly
of themselves and their country as models of
perfection ; and the dress, manners, customs, features,
and gait of strangers, are to them objects
of ridicule. It is difficult to account for so great
an excess of weakness and delusion, but no doubt
the general causes are their ignorance of the
world beyond themselves, their seeing no strangers
but such as come to supplicate their government
for favours, and the dominion and superiority
which they have immemorially exercised
over the barbarous and inferior tribes which immediately
surround them. From whatever cause
it arises, there can be no question but that the
Siamese, ignorant as they are in arts and arms,
—without individual or national superiority,—
half naked and enslaved, are yet the vainest people
in the East.
The virtues of a Siamese are all of a negative
complexion, and the catalogue of them is brief.
They are generally temperate and abstemious;
placable, peaceable, and obedient. The temperance
of such a people is in all probability the
joint result of climate, constitution, and necessity.
Religion prescribes a vegetable diet, and as the
slaughter of animals is forbidden, one might expect
to find that animal food would be scrupulously
rejected, as with the most rigid of the
Hindoo castes. But this is far from being the