SIAM:
ITS GOVERNMENT, MANNERS, CUSTOMS, &c.
BY Rev. N. A. McDONALD, For ten years a Missionary in that country.
PHILADELPHIA: ALFRED MARTIEN, 1214 CHESTNUT STREET. 1871.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by ALFRED MARTIEN, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
To the Memory Of the Founder of Milnwood Academy, REV. J. Y. McGINNES,
Who had the cause of Foreign Missions very much at heart;
AND TO ALL WHO HAVE BEEN PUPILS OF THAT INSTITUTION, THIS LITTLE VOLUME
Is respectfully dedicated, by one of the earliest Students of the Institution,
The Author.
[Illustration: The present King of Siam.]
Contents.
CHAPTER I. GEOGRAPHY
CHAPTER II. THE GOVERNMENT
CHAPTER III. RELIGION
CHAPTER IV. EDUCATION AND LITERATURE
CHAPTER V. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS
CHAPTER VI. COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE
CHAPTER VII. CEREMONIES FOR THE DYING AND DEAD
CHAPTER VIII. THEORY AND PRACTICE OF MEDICINE
CHAPTER IX. FARMING AND PRODUCTS
CHAPTER X. MODE OF DIVIDING TIME
CHAPTER XI. MISSIONARY OPERATIONS
PREFACE.
In giving these pages to the public the author has no ambition to make a book. Having been invited by the Principal of Milnwood Academy, at Shade Gap, Pa., to deliver in that Institution a series of lectures, or talks, on Siam, its government, manners, customs, &c., a few friends have requested that they be reduced to paper and published, which is his only apology for giving them to the public in book form. A few additions have been made, and the facts are narrated as seen and understood by the author. In a few instances, to refresh his memory, he has referred to articles on Siam, published in the Bangkok Calendar and elsewhere. The work is intended chiefly for a class of readers who may not have access to the more pretending works recently published on that country.
N. A. M.
Shade Gap, Pa., April, 1871.
SIAM.
CHAPTER I.
GEOGRAPHY, Etc.