vinity. Prah-Pak-krom, the superior of the
Phraklang’s temple, conversing with me on this
subject, said, there was no one greater than Gautama,
and that even his power would expire ini
about five thousand years. They say, that the
world was created by chance—that it will be destroyed—
reproduced, and destroyed again, without
end. They admit the existence of tutelary
gods, and every spot has its own guardian div
in ity ; but these personages are of very inferior
rank or power. They neither worship nor
believe in the gods of the Hindoo Pantheon.
They consider these as heroes, kings, and con
querors, and make them the subjects of their
romances, their dramas, and their legends. They
even exhibit them as paintings and sculptures
upon the walls of their temples, but this affords
no proof of their worshipping them ; for they
exhibit, in the same situations, representations
of Europeans, of Persians, of Chinese, and other
strangers, without intending them as any thing
else than mere decorations of the buildings.i A
person of good sense told me distinctly, that the
Hindoo deities had been mere men like ourselves,
and translated to heaven for great and
good deeds. The Minister Suri-wung-Kosa
said, without scruple, in conversation updn
the subject, that the story of Rama was
“ full of falsehoods.” The King of Siam, to
whom Louis XIV. sent two missions, and to
whom he made the indiscreet proposal of changing
his religion, had no scruple, while he firmly
rejected that proposal, to hang up in a distinguished
part of his palace a portrait of Christ
and the Virgin, which he had received as a present
from his Holiness the Pope. I t is obviously
their indifference and want of zeal which leads
the Siamese into this course.
The moral precepts of the Siamese are contained
in the following ten Commandments :—
1. Do not slay animals. 2. Do not steal. 3. Do
not commit adultery. 4. Do not tell lies, or backbite.
5. Do not drink wine. 6, Do not eat after
twelve o’clock. 7. Do not frequent plays or public
spectacles, or listen to music. 8, Do not use
perfumes, or wear flowers or other personal ornaments.
9. Do not sleep or recline upon a couch
that is above one cubit high. 10. Do not borrow
or be m debt.—The first five of these precepts
are applicable to all mankind, but the rest imperative
only on the Talapoins. With the exception
of one or two of these axioms, founded
on the inevitable and universal principles of natural
ethics, they are either frivolous or ridiculous
; and the very first on the list, when contrasted
with their practice, goes far to justify
the censure passed upon the Siamese by La Lou-
bere, that they have “ a greater horror of shedding
blood than of committing murder.”
A stnct observance of religious duties is exf
2