a year of 354 days, and to make up the deficiency they intercalate | Pegu, which was utterly overthrown in the next century by his seven or eight months in nineteen years, and add besides an occa- successors. But after the civil wars of the 18th century the Burmese, sional day to the seventh month. The years are denoted by a having previonsly taken Chieng-mai, which appealed to Siam for cycle of twelve names (of animals) taken in decades, so that every help, entered Tenasserim and took Mergui and Tavoy in 1764, sixtieth year the year of a given name returns to the same place and then advancing simultaneously from the north and the west in the decade. The system resembles the Indian cycle of sixty captured and destroyed Ayuthia after a two years' siege (1767). years, but it is derived from China, where it dates from 2637 B.C. The intercourse between France and Siam began about 1580 under Two eras are in use, the Putta Sakarat or Buddhist, used in reli- Phra Narain, who, by the advice of his minister, the Cephalonian gious matters, which commences 543 B. C., and the civil era or adventurer Constantine Phaulcon, sent an embassy to Louis XIV. Chula Sakarat (i.e., little era), said to commemorate the establish- When the return mission arrived, the eagerness of the ambassador ment of Buddhism in 638 A.D. The ancient Aryan inscriptions for the king's conversion to Christianity, added to the intrigues of usually employ the Saka (Salivahana) era, dating from 79 A.D. Phaulcon with the Jesuits with the supposed intention of establishHistory History.-The name "Siam" has been usually derived from a ing a French supremacy, led to the death of Phaulcon, the persecuMalay word, sajam, "brown"; but this is mere conjecture. They tion of the Christians, and the cessation of all intercourse with and the Shans both call themselves Thai (Shan Tai), i.c., ". free,' France. An interesting episode was the active intercourse, chiefly and the Peguans call them Shan or Shian, which seems to be a commercial, between the Siamese and Japanese Governments from translation of "Thai" and an allied word, as are perhaps Ahom= 1592 to 1632. Many Japanese settled in Siam, where they were Assam, and Sam (Assamese for Shan). The obsolete Siamese word is much employed. They were dreaded as soldiers, and as individuals Siem and the Chinese Sien-lo,-the Sien being, according to them, a commanded a position resembling that of Europeans in most Eastern tribe which came from the north about 1341 and united with the Lo- countries. The jealousy of their increasing influence at last led to hoh, who had previously occupied the shores of the gulf, and were a massacre, and to the expulsion or absorption of the survivors. probably Shans. The Siamese call the Shans Thai-nyai, "Great Japan was soon after this, in 1636, closed to foreigners; but trade Thai," perhaps as having preceded them, and themselves Thai-noi or with Siam was carried on at all events down to 1745 through Dutch "Little Thai." They are probably therefore closely related, though and Chinese and occasional English traders. In 1752 an embassy this is disputed by De Rosny and others; but the inferior physique came from Ceylon, desiring to renew the ancient friendship and to of the Siamese may be explained as due to intercourse with Malays discuss religious matters. During recent agitations of the Buddhist and other southern races and to their more enervating climate. priests against Christianity in Ceylon they received much active Meanwhile for many centuries before the southward move above sympathy from Siam.. After the fall of Ayuthia a great general, referred to the entire south as well as south-east of the Indo-Chinese Phaya Takh Sin, collected the remains of the army and restored peninsula was Cambodian. The town of Lapong is said to have been the fortunes of the kingdom, establishing his capital at Bangkok; founded in 575, and the half-mythical king, Phra Ruang, to have but, becoming insane, he was put to death, and was succeeded by freed the Siamese from the Cambodian yoke and founded Sang- another successful general, Phaya Chakkri, who founded the present kalok, on the upper waters of the Me-nam, in the following century. dynasty. Under him Tenasserim was invaded and Tavoy held for Buddhism is said to have been introduced in his time, but Indian the last time by the Siamese in 1792, though in 1825, taking advan Influences had penetrated the country both from the north and tage of the Burmese difficulty with England, they bombarded some from the south long before this. Other Lao towns were built about of the towns on that coast. The supremacy of China is indicated the 7th century, and during the following centuries this branch of by occasional missions sent, as on the founding of a new dynasty, the race gradually advanced southwards, driving the Karens, Lawas, to Peking, to bring back a seal and a calendar. But the Siamese and other tribes into the hills, and encroaching on what had hitherto now repudiate this supremacy, and have sent neither mission been Cambodian territory. Their southward progress may indeed nor tribute for thirty years, and yet their trading vessels are almost be traced by their successive capitals, several of which are admitted to the Chinese free ports, like those of any other clustered on the Me-nam within a short distance of each other, friendly power. The late sovereign, Phra Paramendr Maha Mongviz., Phitsalok, Sukkothai, and Sangkalok on the eastern branch, kut, was a very accomplished man, an enlightened reformer, Nakhon Savan at the junction, and Kamphong-pet, the immediate and devoted to science; his death indeed was caused by fatigue precursor of Ayuthia, on the western branch. A Sukkothai inscrip- and exposure while observing an eclipse. Many of his predetion of about 1284 states that the dominions of King Rama Kamheng cessors, too, were men of different fibre from the ordinary Oriental extended across the country from the Me-kong to Pechaburi, and sovereign. Chao Dua, the adversary of Phaulcon, went about seekthence down the Gulf of Siam to Ligor; and the Malay annals say ing pugilistic encounters. He is reported to have been a cruel that the Siamese had penetrated to the extremity of the peninsula tyrant and debauchee and a keen sportsman; but the offence given before the first Malay colony from Menangkabu founded Singapore, to his subjects in the latter character and the evil reports of the i.e., about 1160. The ancestors of the Siamese were then on the persecuted French missionaries may have unduly blackened his western branch of the Me-nam, and in 1351, under the famous reputation. Phaya Uthong (afterwards styled Phra Rama Thibodi, and probubly of a Shan family) moved down from Kamphong-pet, where they had been for five generations, to Chaliang; and, being driven thence, it is said, by a pestilence, they established themselves at Ayuthia. This king's sway extended to Moulmain, Tavoy, Tenasserim, and the whole Malacca peninsula (where among the traders from the West Siam was known as Sornau, i.c., Shahr-i-nau or Newtown, probably in allusion to Ayuthia,-Yule's Marco Polo, ii. 260), and was felt even in Java. This is corroborated by Javan records, which describe a "Cambodian" invasion about 1340; but Cambodia was itself invaded about this time by the Siamese, who took Angkor and held it for a time, carrying off 90,000 captives. The great southward expansion here recorded, whether of one or of two allied Thai tribes, confirms in a remarkable way the Chinese statement above mentioned, and was probably a consequence or a part of the great contemporaneous activity of the more northern Shan kingdom of Mau. The wars with Cambodia continued with varying success for some 400 years, but Cambodia gradually lost ground and was finally shorn of several provinces, her sovereign falling entirely under Siamese influence. This, however, latterly became displeasing to the French, now in Cochin China, and Siam has been obliged to recognize the protectorate forced on Cambodia by that power. Vigorous attacks were also made during this period on the Lao states to the north-west and north-east, followed by vast deportation of the people, and Siamese supremacy was pretty firmly established in Chieng-mai and its dependencies by the end of the 18th century, and over the great eastern capitals, Luang Prabang and Vien-chang, about 1828. During the 15th and 16th centuries Siam was frequently invaded by the Burmese and Peguans, who, attracted probably by the great wealth of Ayuthia, besieged it more than once without success, the defenders being aided by Portuguese mercenaries, till about 1555, when the city was taken and Siam reduced to dependence. From this condition, however, it was raised a few years later by the great conqueror and national hero Phra Naret, who after subduing Laos and Cambodia invaded of Of European nations the Portuguese first established intercourse with Siam. This was in 1511, after the conquest of Malacca by D'Albuquerque, and the intimacy lasted over a century, the tradition of their greatness having hardly yet died out. They were supplanted gradually in the 17th century by the Dutch, whose intercourse also lasted for a similar period; but they have left no traces of their presence as the Portuguese always did in these countries to a greater extent than any other people. English traders were in Siam very early in the 17th century; there was a friendly interchange of letters between James I. and the king of Siam, who had some Englishmen in his service, and, when the ships visited "Sia" (which was "as great a city as London ") or the queen Patani, they were hospitably received and accorded privileges, the important items of export being, as now, tin, varnish, deerskins, and "precious drugs." Later on, the East India Company's servants, jealous at the employment of Englishmen not in their service, attacked the Siamese, which led to a massacre of the English at Mergui in 1687; and the factory at Ayuthia was abandoned in 1688. A similar attack is said to have been made in 1719 by the governor of Madras. After this the trade was neglected. Penang, a dependency of Quedah, was occupied in 1786, and in the 19th century the stagnation of trade led to the missions of Crawford (1822), Burney (1826), and Sir J. Brooke (1850); but they were not very cordially received, and effected little. Sir J. Bowring's treaty in 1856, however, put matters on a different footing, and Europeans can now reside in Siam, buy or rent houses, and lease land. The export and import duties are also fixed, and there is a vice-consular court at Chieng-mai, with appeal to the consular court at Bangkok, held from time to time by a judge from Singapore, with which place there are extradition arrangements. Of late years the north-eastern provinces have been harassed by invasions of the Lu and Ho, peoples of Chinese extraction, their incursions extending down the Me-kong as far as Nong-kai. Besides works referred to at the end of article SHANS, the chief authorities are. La Loubère, Description du Royaume de Siam, 1714 (the best of the old Ian's. guage. writers); Pallegoix, Royaume Thai ou Siam, Paris, 1854; Crawford, Embassy to Siam; Bowring, The Kingdom and People of Siam, London, 1857; Bastian, Die Völker des östlichen Asiens, vols. 1., iii., Leipsic, 1867: Garnier, Voyage d'Explora tion en Indo-Chine, Paris, 1873; Mouhot, Travels in Indo-China, &c.; Journ. of Ind. Archip., vols. i., v.; Gréhan, Le Royaume de Siam, Paris, 1870; Réclus, Nouvelle Géographie Universelle, vol. viii.; Bagge, Report on the Settlement of the Boundary between Siam and British Burmah, 1868; Satow, Notes of the Intercourse between Japan and Siam in the 17th Century; Aymonnier, in Excursions et Recon(C. T.) naissances, Nos. 20-22 (Saigon); Consular Reports, 1884-85. Language and Literature. The Siamese language is spoken over the whole of Siam proper. In the Malay peninsula the boundary-line comes down on the west coast nearly as far as Quedah and Perlis, and includes also Junk Ceylon, while on the east coast the population is mainly Siamese as far as Ligor inclusive, and also in Singora Siamese appears to be the ruling language. Its boundary towards Burmah, the Shan and Laos states, and Anam and Cambodia cannot be defined so precisely. There are also in the north-east a number of wild tribes who speak languages of their own. The name by which the Siamese themselves call their language is phâsá thai, or "language of the freemen"; and it probably dates from the period when the Siamese made themselves independent of Cambodian rule in the 12th century. The Shan tribes, whose language (with those of the Ahom, Khamti, and Laos) is closely akin to Siamese, also use the term tai (only with the unaspirated t) for their race and language. Both in Shan and Siamese the system of tones, which is one of the main features of all the languages of Indo-China, has attained its greatest development. But, while in Shan the tones are not marked in the written language, in Siamese there are distinct signs to denote at least four of the five simple tones (the even tone not being marked); and there is further a classification of the consonants into three groups, in each of which certain tones predominate. It is always the initial consonant of a word that indicates, either by its phonetic power or by the tonic accent superadded or by a combination of the two, the tone in which the word is to be uttered, so that, e.g., a word beginning with a letter of the second class in which the even tone is inherent, and which has the mark of the ascending tone over it, is to be pronounced with the descending tone.1 The difficulties caused to a European student of the spoken language by the tones are increased by the greatly expanded vowel-system. In addition to the short and long, there are shortest vowels, sets of open and closed vowels, &c., and a large number of vowel combinations. Owing to the introduction of the Indian consonantal system and the incorporation in it of many letters to express certain sounds peculiar to Siamese, the number of consonants has been swelled to forty-three; but, while many of these are only used in words adopted from the Sanskrit and Pali, Siamese utterance knows no more than twenty; kh, g, gh are all pronounced as kh; similarly ph, b, bh as ph, &c.,-the language having a predilection for hard letters, especially aspirates. The only compound letters at the beginning of words are combinations of hard letters with l, r, w, y, while the finals are confined in pronunciation to k, t, p, ǹ (ng), n, m. This causes a considerable discrepancy between the spelling of words (especially loan words) and their pronunciation. Thus samparn is pronounced sombun, bhasha-phasa, nagara-nakhon, saddharmasatham, kusala-kuson, sesha-set, vara-van, Magadha-Makhot. The foreign ingredients in Siamese are principally Sanskrit, mostly in a corrupted form. The importation of Pali words dates from about the 12th century, when, the country having shaken off the yoke of Cambodia, a religious intercourse was established between Siam and Ceylon. Besides these, there are some Khmer (Cambodian) and Malay words. Exclusive of those foreign importations, Siamese is a monosyllabic language in which neither the form nor the accent or tone of a word determines the part of speech to which it belongs. Homonymous words abound and are only distinguished from one another by the tones. Compare lan, "white"; lan, "to relate"; lan, "to flatter"; lán, "to smooth"; lan, "relation." Words are unchangeable and incapable of inflexion. The Siamese are fond of joining two words the second of which is either purely synonymous to or modifies the sense of the first, or is only a jingling addition. There is no article, and no distinction of gender, number, or case. These, if it is at all necessary to denote them, are expressed by explanatory words after the respective nouns; only the dative and ablative are denoted by subsidiary words, which precede the nouns, the nominative being marked by its position before, the objective by its position after, the verb, and the genitive (and also the adjective) by its place after the noun it qualifies. Occasionally, however, auxiliary nouns serve that purpose. Words like "mother," "son," "water" are often employed in forming compounds to express ideas for which the Siamese have no single words; e.g., lak can, "the son of hire,” a labourer; mê mû, “the mother of the hand," the thumb. The use of class words with numerals obtains in Siamese as it does in Chinese, Burmese, Anamese, 1 See A. Bastian, "Ueber die siamesischen Lant- und Ton-Accente," in Monatsber. d. k. Akad. d. Wissensch. zu Berlin, June 1867. 2 See Pallegoix, Gramm., pp. 155-156, and Van der Tunk, Bataksch Leesboek, vol. 17. pp. 127-183, 208-214. Malay, and many other Eastern languages. As in these, so in Siamese the personal pronouns are mostly represented by nouns expressive of the various shades of superior or lower rank according to Eastern etiquette. The verb is, like the noun, perfectly colourless,-person, number, tense, and mood being indicated by auxiliary words only when they cannot be inferred from the context. Such auxiliary words are ya, "to be, ," "to dwell" (present); dai, "to haye," lên, "end" (past); că, "also" (future); the first and third follow, the second and fourth precede, the verb. Hài, "to give" (prefixed), often indicates the subjunctive. As there are compound nouns, so there are compound verbs; thus, e.g., pai, "to is go, joined to a transitive verb to convert it into an intransitive or neuter; and thak, "to touch," and tòng, "to be obliged," serve to form a sort of passive voice. The number of adverbs, single and compound, is very large. The prepositions mostly consist of nouns. The order of the words in a single sentence is subject, verb, object. All attributes (adjectives, genitive, adverbs) follow the word to which they are subordinated. The following simple sentence may serve as an example of Siamese construction and diction; mila (time) an (read) nansi (book) nt (this) leo (end, done) con (should) fak-vai (entrust) ki (to) phulenban (neighbours) hai (give, cause) khan (they) an (read), i.e., "when you have read this book, please give it to your neighbours that they may read it." The current Siamese characters are derived from the more monumental Cambodian alphabet, which again owes its origin to the alphabet of the inscriptions, an offshoot of the character found on the stone monuments of southern India in the 6th and 8th centuries. The sacred books of Siam are still written in the Cambodian character, and some have occasionally an interlinear translation in the current Siamese hand. The study of the Siamese language was initiated in Europe by La Loubère (1687), from whom Dr J. Leyden ("The Languages and Literature of the IndoChinese Nations," in Asiatic Researches, vol. x. pp. 158-289, reprinted in Miscellaneous Papers on Indo-China, vol. i., 1886, pp. 84-171) has derived much of his information. Leyden's Comparative Vocabulary of the Barma, Malayu, and Thai Languages appeared in 1810. The first grammar of the language we owe to James Low, Calcutta, 1828. Very useful Grammatical Notices of the Siamese Language, by the Rev. J. Taylor Jones, appeared at Bangkok in 1842. The Grammatica Linguæ That of J. B. Pallegoix, Bangkok, 1850, was followed in 1854 by his great Dictionarium in Siamese, Latin, French, and English. An analytical account of the language was attempted by Ad. Bastian in his Sprachvergleichende Studien, 1870, pp. 191-226. In 1881 L. Ewald brought out at Leipsic his Grammatik der Tai- oder Siamesischen Sprache. Lastly, Prof. Fr. Müller gave a summary of Siamese grammar in his Grundriss der Sprachwissenschaft, vol. ii. part 2, Vienna, 1882, pp. 367-376. A new grammar, by the Rev. S. George, is in progress. Compare also W. Schott, Ueber die indochinesischen Sprachen, insonderheit das Siamesische, 1856; and E. Kuhn, Leber Herkunft und Sprache der transgangetischen Völker, 1883. An English grammar written in Siamese, and designed for use in schools, appeared at Bangkok in 1837. 5 There are no records in Siamese referring to the time antecedent Litera to the settlement of the nation in their present locality, or, in the ture words of Mr Ney Elias, "of earlier date than the founding of their first national capital, Ayuthia, at the commencement of the 14th century.' "The inscription at Sukkothai, said to be of the year 671 of the Siamese era, nine years after the invention of the present Siamese characters, cannot be put in evidence as an historical record till a facsimile and revised translation shall have been obtained. The few manuscript annals mentioned by Bishop Pallegoix have not yet been critically examined; but metrical compositions, containing legendary tales and romances, abound and are eagerly studied. The subjects are mostly taken from the Indian epics, as in the case of the Ráma-kiun or Ramayana, more rarely from Malay or Javanese legend, such as the drama I-hnao. There is a great variety of metres, all of which have been described with much minuteness of detail by Colonel Low in his article on Siamese literature, in Asiatic Researches, vol. xx. pp. 351-373.6 In their romantic poetry the Siamese have a greater tendency to describe than to relate; their pictures of places and scenery are grand and striking and form the best part of their poetical conceptions. The great blemish of their poetry consists in tedious embellishments and a hankering after indecent and often gross allusions, from which but few works, such as Sang Sin Chai and Samut Niyai Si Muang, may be said to be free. The titles of the principal romances are Hoi Sang, Nang Prathom, Sang Sin Chai, Thepha Lin Thong, Suwanna Hong, Thao Sawatthi Racha, Phra Únarut, Dura Suriwong, Khun Phan, Nong Sip Sang, and the dramas I-hnao and Phra Simuang. The plots of some of these have been given by Colonel Low. The most popular of the religious books, all of which are translations or amplifications from Pali originals, is called Somanakhodom (Cramana Gautama), which is identical with the Vessantara Játaka. In miscellaneous li rature may be mentioned Suphasit, consisting of 222 elegant sayings in the accented metre called Klong, and Wuta Chindamani (Vritta Chintamani), a work on prosody like the Pali Vuttodaya, but treating also of a number of grammatical questions. The fable literature is of course largely represented; the lists, however, are 3 See "The Passive Verb of the Thai Language," by F. L. W. von Bergen, Krung Theph Maha Nakhon, 1874. Sketch of the History of the Shans, Calcutta, 1876, p. 84. 5 Bastian, in Jour. As. Soc. Bengal, vol. xxxiv. p. 27, and Sprachvergleichende Studien, p. 227. 6 See also Pallegoix, Gramm. Linguæ Thai, pp. 120-129. frequently swelled by the enumeration of single fables which are but parts of larger collections. The number of works on law is considerable; and it is remarkable that, while in Burmah many Pali codes have currency, not a single Pali text-book on law should have been discovered in Sian; all that we meet with in the law books are a few Pali quotations here and there: Laksana Phra Thammasat Laksana Phua Mia, an introduction to the code of Siamese laws, founded on the Dharmaçâstra and on royal edicts, was completed in 1804. It contains thirty books, at the head of which stands the Phra Thammasat, attributed to Manosâra or Manu, a treatise on the classification of laws. Next comes the Inthaphat, or book of Indra, a guide or exhortation to councillors and judges, and then the Phra Thamnun, or rules for the general conduct of judicial business. Then follow in order the undermentioned sections-disputes, plaints and allegations, official rank, classification of people, debt, marriage, criminal law, abduction, slavery, disputes connected with land, evidence, inheritance, examining officers, appeal, disputes as to classification of people, radius of responsibility for burglaries, &c., the thirty-six laws, the royal edicts, trial by ordeal of water and fire, laws of the palace, laws of the priesthood, offences against the king, offences against the people, rebellion, ancient statutes, recent statutes. Only one of these sections, the one on slavery, has been translated into English, by Dr Bradley; it appeared in the Bangkok Calendar. The whole work has been printed at Bangkok in two volumes. The Kathu Phra Aiyakan, another compendium of laws, contains edicts principally referring to assaults, adultery, and the appraisement of fines. Among these we find the following: "A man who strikes another with a blank book shall be fined as though he had struck him with his hand; but if the assault is committed with a book of the classics the offender shall be fined twice as much as he would have had to pay for assaulting with a stick." The Laksana Tat Fong, or law of plaints and allegations, and of the institution and summary dismissal of suits, appears to be identical with the fifth section of the printed code. There is also a separate work called Phra Thamnun, which, though identical in name with the section of the Laksana Phra Thammasat above described, covers much more ground. A compendium of law entitled Ruang Kot Mai Muang Thai, or Code of Laws of the Kingdom of Siam, in two volumes, was printed at Bangkok in 1879. Colonel Low, who did not touch on jurisprudence in his essay on Siamese literature, made good the omission in a separate article "On the Laws of Siam," in the first volume of Logan's Journal of the Indian Archipelago (Singapore, 1847). Pallegoix, in his " 'Catalogus præcipuorum librorum linguæ Thai" (Grammatica, pp. 172-180), gives the titles of a good many treatises on scientific subjects, medicine, mathematics, astrology; but none appear to have been critically examined. In the first volume of his Description du royaume Thai (1854) are inserted various pieces translated from Siamese works. See also on the Siamese language and literature generally the "Remarks" by the Rev. C. Güitzlaff, in the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Socidy, vol. iii. (1835), pp. 291-304; and on the literature Leyden's "Essay" above referred to (Miscellaneous Paupers, vol. i. pp. 143-147). It is only in quite recent times that an Ananiese influence has beguu to be traceable in the language and literature of the Siamese. In 1810 Dr Leyden undertook, at the instance of the Calcutta Auxiliary Bible Society, to superintend a translation of the four Gospels into Siamese; but he died before the project was carried into effect. Subsequently Messrs Gützlaff and Tomlin, assisted by learned natives, laboured till 1883 at a trustworthy translation of the new Testament into Siamesc. Their task was continued and completed by Messrs Jones and Robinson, and the work was pub lished in 1846. (R. K.) END OF VOLUME TWENTY-FIRST. |