CHAPTERVI.THE CHINESE IN SIAM.TheChinese have been in Siam since time immemorial, and have increased, until now the Siamese say that more than half the population is Chinese.There is no census taken in this country, and even the government has no positive means of knowing the number of inhabitants. But we may safely suppose the above statement to be true. The deck of every steamer and sailing craft from China is swarming with these ubiquitous Celestials. In the year 1767 the Burmese invaded Siam, sacked Ayuthia, the old capital, and carried away many captives. Prya-Tahksin, a Siamo-Chinese, rallied the Siamese forces, defeated the Burmese and drove them out of the country. He took the throne, fortified the town of Bangkok and made it the capital. He reigned fifteen years, and was then defeated by Somdet Pra Baroma Rahchah Pra Pretta Yaut Fah, who was the first king of the present dynasty, Prabat Somdet Pra Paramendr-Maha-Chula-Long-Korn-Klow, the present sovereign, being the fifth.Chinese of wealth often become favorites with the rulers and receive titles of nobility, and these noblemen in return present their daughters to their majesties. Thus we find Chinese blood flowing in the veins of the royal family of Siam.HOME OF RICH CHINAMAN.HOME OF RICH CHINAMAN.Although a Chinaman may have left a wife in his native land, that does not prevent his taking as many others as he can support. The first Siamese wife is supreme, and rules the many-sided household without opposition. Intermarriage with the different tribes found in Siam does not change to any extent their native characteristics. The children inherit the same peculiar traits of character. They have the same almond-shaped eyes and copper complexion, cultivate their hair in queue style, and wear the same fashion of dress which their Chinese ancestors wore centuries ago.The Chinese element in Siam is a powerful one. No other race can compete with it, not even excepting the Caucasian. We find the Chinese in every department of business. They are extensive ship-owners. In the days when Siam had a sailing fleet of merchantmen the owners were principally Chinese, as were also the shippers and crews. Even when commanded by a European captain, the supercargo on board was a Chinaman and had chief control.Since steamships have been introduced we find that the owners and agents of some of these are Chinamen. The saw-mills and rice-mills worked by muscle-power are all owned by Chinese, and since the introduction of steam-mills they are not slow to adopt these modern improvements, so that now several steam saw-mills and rice-mills are owned by enterprising Chinamen. When business was dull and Europeans stopped their mills, the Chinese kept theirs running. One reason for this is that the Chinese can live more cheaply than Europeans, and are satisfied with smaller profits.They are our gardeners, shopkeepers, carpenters, bricklayers, tailors, sailors, shoemakers, blacksmiths, fishermen and washermen. All the mills employ Chinese coolies; all cargo-boats for loading and unloading ships are manned by these coolies. Europeans prefer the Chinese for servants: they are cleanly and quick to learn, frugal in their habits, utilizing everything. In the possession of all these traits they stand alone amidst surrounding tribes.But the curse of opium-smoking andshamshu-drinking has followed them to this sunny land, and makes shipwreck of many thousands of lives annually. When they once become addicted to the use of opium they neglect their business and families and spend every cent they can find or steal for the poisonous drug, and finally, in a crazed state, their bodies mere skeletons, they lie down and die or put an end to their own lives.Change of climate, scene and associations has no appreciable effect on the disposition of a Chinaman. He still retains his acquisitive, irascible and turbulent temperament. The Chinese herd together in little rooms, perhaps a score of them eating, working and sleeping in one little room in which a white man would die of suffocation. They are very clannish too, the natives of each province holding together and working to promote the interests of their own particular clan. They have frequent quarrels with the natives of other provinces.Some time ago there was quite a serious quarrel between certain clans. The trouble is said to have originated with the Ang Yees, a secret society. They resorted to knives and firearms, and a number were killed. The government took the matter up and decapitated several of them, which put a quietus upon the others for the time.The Chinese are very daring. There are organized bands of robbers, who go up and down the river robbing boats and breaking into native houses, and committing murder in some cases where resistance is offered. One house in the very shadow of the palace was entered and a large sum of money taken. The ringleaders were caught and beheaded, and the people are now feeling more secure in life and property.The Chinese are inveterate gamblers. Much of the hard-earned wages of the laboring classes is lost in the gambling dens. The gambling establishments are all in the hands of the Chinese. Gambling, like many other things in Siam, is a monopoly, and the government sells to the highest bidder the privilege of licensing and controlling all such establishments in the country. He has the right to arrest and punish all those who infringe upon his privileges. Men, women and little children all frequent the gambling-places. Cards and dice are both used. The lottery monopoly is also in the hands of the Chinese.Every Chinaman must pay a triennial poll-tax of two dollars and seventy-five cents. As a proof that this tax has been paid they must wear a cord around the wrist fastened with the gum of a certain tree and stamped with the government seal. A great many try to evade this law by keeping in retirement until the time for taxation is passed. The Siamese captives are liable at any time to be called upon to do government work, and to escape it they sometimes wear the queue. A lad on our premises who had worn the queue for years decided to have it cut off, and when asked why he did so replied, “I hear the Siamese are requiring every one wearing the queue to give in the Chinese language the different parts of a pig; as I could not do that, I had my queue cut off.” If the story is true, it was a happy thought of the Siamese. The Chinese are the pork-raisers of Siam, and could easily meet the test.CHINESE BOAT-PEOPLECHINESE BOAT-PEOPLE.Most of the villages on the gulf coast are inhabited by Chinese fishermen. Those living near the mouth of the Menam Chowphya bring the products of the sea to the Bangkok market at all seasons of the year, whilst those on the opposite side must consult the winds and tides. Everything, from a sea-slug to a porpoise, is caught and sold in the market. As their fish-boats have to travel at least thirty miles, it is necessary to make an early start, and in order to arrive here for the morning market they most probably toil all night.CHINESE CEMETERYCHINESE CEMETERY.Most of the Chinese who die here are buried, but some are cremated. The disposition of the body rests altogether with the wife and children of the deceased. Very many, however, return to their native land, after amassing a good pile of Mexican dollars, to lay their bones in the ancestral burying-ground, where their spirits may be worshiped in turn by their descendants.Although the different provinces in China have their own peculiar superstitions and customs, yet when they come here they assimilate to a certain degree. Every three or four years some person turns up who claims that the spirit of their god has entered into him, and he is put through the crucial test of sitting on iron spikes and sharp swords, having needles thrust into his cheeks and his tongue cut. That one who can obtain an inscription written with the blood from the tongue is considered highly favored. If he can endure all this torture unflinchingly, his claim is considered genuine. They then prepare for a grand procession by land or water. If on the river, the god is seated on a throne in a gayly-decorated boat, accompanied by a long line of boats with flags, banners and streamers flying and gongs beating. The Chinese love dearly to “strike the loud cymbal.” These occasions are to Young China what the Fourth of July is to Young America, a time of fire-crackers and deafening noises. The more grotesquely the occupants of the boats are dressed the more imposing the ceremony.The wealthy classes build very pleasant, comfortable brick houses. The walls of the verandas are decorated with flowering plants and shrubbery placed in fancy Chinese flower-pots. The indispensable Chinese lantern is suspended from the roof of the veranda. In the interior of the house you will find the shrine of the household god, and over it is placed a number of fancy-colored and gilt papers containing inscriptions, perhaps the daily petitions or prayers of the household.The Chinese are a religious people, every house having its altar. But “their rock is not as our Rock, themselves being judges.” At sundown they will burn gilt paper and incense-sticks to Joss, and turn in the midst of their devotions and curse a European, calling him a “white devil.” We have been accustomed from childhood to think of the “father of lies” as a very black spirit, and it seems very strange to us to have these dusky faces call himwhite.The furniture of some of these houses is very handsome. The same black, straight-backed settees and chairs seen everywhere in China are here, some of them handsomely inlaid with ivory, mother-of-pearl and fine porcelain.PAPER PRAYERSPAPER PRAYERS.The Chinese are a polite people too. If you visit them in their homes, and they have been accustomed to mingle with Europeans, they will offer you their hand or will chin-chin, bowing very low and shaking their own hands. You are invited to sit down, and a cup of excellent tea in its purity is offered in the daintiest of cups. One is tempted to covet some of those beautiful table-covers, screens or fans, all so richly embroidered in bright-colored silks. Some of the fans are white silk, with birds and flowers painted on them.“But small the bliss that sense alone bestows,And sensual bliss is all the nation knows;In florid beauty groves and fields appear:Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.”PARLOR OF CHINESE HOUSEPARLOR OF CHINESE HOUSE.In the cool of the evening the working classes gather in groups round the doors of their houses, talking, laughing and smoking. One of the number is perhaps entertaining the others with music on a little instrument resembling a violin. But there is no music in it. If the reader would like to reproduce the sound, let him try drawing the bow over the violin-strings back and forth in a seesaw manner for an hour or two at a time, and he will have a faint idea of the distracting sounds drawn from the tortured instrument. There is not the slightest approach to melody.The scantily-clad coolie is not æsthetic, but as a nation the Chinese are very much so. If they have the means they surround themselves with beautiful things, such as silk, embroideries, paintings, carving in ivory, lacquer-ware, mosaics, birds and flowers. Their ladies paint their faces to look beautiful. But these stay in their native land; a Chinese woman is rarely seen in Siam.See that group of Chinamen who have been invited to a party given by the foreign minister on the king’s birthday. They walk up and down through the drawing-room and halls, so that we have a fine opportunity for seeing them in full dress. Thin loose trousers of blue silk, almost concealed by a robe of elegant silk richly embroidered, a cape of the same covering the shoulders; Chinese slippers embroidered and turned up at the toes; a hat (which they wear all the evening) resembling a butter-bowl; and, to complete the grand toilette, they flourish exquisite fans in silk and ivory. They make frequent visits to the refreshment-room, and seem to enjoy the good things provided.Many of those coming here from China cannot swim a stroke, and yet they will venture out on the river in a little boat, perhaps a leakysampan, which they do not know how to manage, or they will crowd into a larger boat until it is weighed down to the water’s edge, scarcely leaving room to use the paddles. In this condition they will attempt to cross the river when it is very rough and dangerous. Perhaps they will reach the opposite shore safely, or, becoming excited, they lose all presence of mind, and, screaming and shouting at one another, completely demoralized, they are carried by the swiftly-flowing current upon the anchor-chain of some vessel lying in the river; the boat is upset and they are left struggling in deep water. Some of them may succeed in getting hold of the chain or rope and cling to it until rescued, whilst others are carried under the ship by the strong current, and are never again seen alive. Like most heathen, they are fatalists, and it would seem sometimes as if they sought death, from their persistently reckless manner when danger threatens them. They will run their little boats across the bow of large boats, even steamers, and, as they are probably moving with the current, a collision is almost inevitable. It is no unusual thing to see the bodies of Chinamen floating up and down at the mercy of the ebbing and flowing tides, until finally they reach the sea and disappear for ever.There is a superstition that if you rescue any one from drowning the water-spirits will resent the interference and claim at some future time the rescuer as a substitute; hence the stolidity and indifference in Siam about rescuing the drowning. New missionaries are always startled to see a boatload of people upset in the river, and shocked that none of the people in the other boats attempt to offer any assistance.As gardeners the Chinese are very successful, and when we consider the few rude implements they have to work with it is wonderful that they succeed so well. Their spade is not much larger than a man’s hand, with a short straight handle—no head to hold by nor rest for the foot; consequently, all the force used in digging must come from the shoulders and arms. The sickle is similar to that used in many parts of Europe at the present day; the plough, drawn by oxen, does not differ perhaps in any respect from the one the prophet Elisha left to follow Elijah.The Chinese do not cultivate the paddy-fields to any great extent, but buy the rice from the producers and bring it to the Bangkok market. Theseri-leaf, which is used so extensively in Siam, is cultivated in the betel-gardens. It is a vine trained on poles, and the leaf, which is a bright green, tender and juicy, resembles the leaf of the morning-glory vine, and is cultivated with great care. Decayed fish is used as a fertilizer, and consequently the breezes which blow over these gardens are not “spicy breezes,” but, on the contrary, very offensive, obliging one in passing to suspend respiration for a time. The leaves are picked when young and tied up in bundles, and carried round for sale in little boats. This leaf, covered with a pink lime paste and a little tobacco and betel-nut added, is rolled up cross-wise and chewed. The consequence is, their teeth are black as coal and the mouth is always full of red saliva, which runs out of the mouth over the chin, and is almost as disgusting as the practice of tobacco-chewing amongst Americans.The Presbyterians have done no special work amongst the Chinese proper in Siam. There are a number of elderly Chinamen in the mission churches, but many of the male members are Siamo-Chinese. In the mission boarding-school for boys more than half the number are sons of Chinamen, and they are the brightest and most encouraging pupils. Many of the missionaries hold the opinion that China proper is the legitimate field in which to teach Christianity to the Chinese. It is very difficult to get educated Chinese teachers in Siam.TheRev.Wm. Dean,D.D., was the first missionary to the Chinese in Siam. He was sent out by the Baptist Association, and arrived in Bangkok July 18, 1835. This venerable father, now in his seventy-seventh year, is still doing active service for the Master in this part of his vineyard. He stood alone for many years, but recently he has been reinforced by the arrival of theRev.L. A. Eaton.The Chinese all learn enough of the Siamese language to make themselves understood, and they can get a saving knowledge of the truth through the medium of the Siamese language if their hearts are so inclined. Already both Siamese and Chinese in Siam are accepting the gospel, so that we see the dawn of that glorious time promised when “the heathen” will “be given as an inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession” to Christ.
TheChinese have been in Siam since time immemorial, and have increased, until now the Siamese say that more than half the population is Chinese.
There is no census taken in this country, and even the government has no positive means of knowing the number of inhabitants. But we may safely suppose the above statement to be true. The deck of every steamer and sailing craft from China is swarming with these ubiquitous Celestials. In the year 1767 the Burmese invaded Siam, sacked Ayuthia, the old capital, and carried away many captives. Prya-Tahksin, a Siamo-Chinese, rallied the Siamese forces, defeated the Burmese and drove them out of the country. He took the throne, fortified the town of Bangkok and made it the capital. He reigned fifteen years, and was then defeated by Somdet Pra Baroma Rahchah Pra Pretta Yaut Fah, who was the first king of the present dynasty, Prabat Somdet Pra Paramendr-Maha-Chula-Long-Korn-Klow, the present sovereign, being the fifth.
Chinese of wealth often become favorites with the rulers and receive titles of nobility, and these noblemen in return present their daughters to their majesties. Thus we find Chinese blood flowing in the veins of the royal family of Siam.
HOME OF RICH CHINAMAN.HOME OF RICH CHINAMAN.
HOME OF RICH CHINAMAN.
Although a Chinaman may have left a wife in his native land, that does not prevent his taking as many others as he can support. The first Siamese wife is supreme, and rules the many-sided household without opposition. Intermarriage with the different tribes found in Siam does not change to any extent their native characteristics. The children inherit the same peculiar traits of character. They have the same almond-shaped eyes and copper complexion, cultivate their hair in queue style, and wear the same fashion of dress which their Chinese ancestors wore centuries ago.
The Chinese element in Siam is a powerful one. No other race can compete with it, not even excepting the Caucasian. We find the Chinese in every department of business. They are extensive ship-owners. In the days when Siam had a sailing fleet of merchantmen the owners were principally Chinese, as were also the shippers and crews. Even when commanded by a European captain, the supercargo on board was a Chinaman and had chief control.
Since steamships have been introduced we find that the owners and agents of some of these are Chinamen. The saw-mills and rice-mills worked by muscle-power are all owned by Chinese, and since the introduction of steam-mills they are not slow to adopt these modern improvements, so that now several steam saw-mills and rice-mills are owned by enterprising Chinamen. When business was dull and Europeans stopped their mills, the Chinese kept theirs running. One reason for this is that the Chinese can live more cheaply than Europeans, and are satisfied with smaller profits.
They are our gardeners, shopkeepers, carpenters, bricklayers, tailors, sailors, shoemakers, blacksmiths, fishermen and washermen. All the mills employ Chinese coolies; all cargo-boats for loading and unloading ships are manned by these coolies. Europeans prefer the Chinese for servants: they are cleanly and quick to learn, frugal in their habits, utilizing everything. In the possession of all these traits they stand alone amidst surrounding tribes.
But the curse of opium-smoking andshamshu-drinking has followed them to this sunny land, and makes shipwreck of many thousands of lives annually. When they once become addicted to the use of opium they neglect their business and families and spend every cent they can find or steal for the poisonous drug, and finally, in a crazed state, their bodies mere skeletons, they lie down and die or put an end to their own lives.
Change of climate, scene and associations has no appreciable effect on the disposition of a Chinaman. He still retains his acquisitive, irascible and turbulent temperament. The Chinese herd together in little rooms, perhaps a score of them eating, working and sleeping in one little room in which a white man would die of suffocation. They are very clannish too, the natives of each province holding together and working to promote the interests of their own particular clan. They have frequent quarrels with the natives of other provinces.
Some time ago there was quite a serious quarrel between certain clans. The trouble is said to have originated with the Ang Yees, a secret society. They resorted to knives and firearms, and a number were killed. The government took the matter up and decapitated several of them, which put a quietus upon the others for the time.
The Chinese are very daring. There are organized bands of robbers, who go up and down the river robbing boats and breaking into native houses, and committing murder in some cases where resistance is offered. One house in the very shadow of the palace was entered and a large sum of money taken. The ringleaders were caught and beheaded, and the people are now feeling more secure in life and property.
The Chinese are inveterate gamblers. Much of the hard-earned wages of the laboring classes is lost in the gambling dens. The gambling establishments are all in the hands of the Chinese. Gambling, like many other things in Siam, is a monopoly, and the government sells to the highest bidder the privilege of licensing and controlling all such establishments in the country. He has the right to arrest and punish all those who infringe upon his privileges. Men, women and little children all frequent the gambling-places. Cards and dice are both used. The lottery monopoly is also in the hands of the Chinese.
Every Chinaman must pay a triennial poll-tax of two dollars and seventy-five cents. As a proof that this tax has been paid they must wear a cord around the wrist fastened with the gum of a certain tree and stamped with the government seal. A great many try to evade this law by keeping in retirement until the time for taxation is passed. The Siamese captives are liable at any time to be called upon to do government work, and to escape it they sometimes wear the queue. A lad on our premises who had worn the queue for years decided to have it cut off, and when asked why he did so replied, “I hear the Siamese are requiring every one wearing the queue to give in the Chinese language the different parts of a pig; as I could not do that, I had my queue cut off.” If the story is true, it was a happy thought of the Siamese. The Chinese are the pork-raisers of Siam, and could easily meet the test.
CHINESE BOAT-PEOPLECHINESE BOAT-PEOPLE.
CHINESE BOAT-PEOPLE.
Most of the villages on the gulf coast are inhabited by Chinese fishermen. Those living near the mouth of the Menam Chowphya bring the products of the sea to the Bangkok market at all seasons of the year, whilst those on the opposite side must consult the winds and tides. Everything, from a sea-slug to a porpoise, is caught and sold in the market. As their fish-boats have to travel at least thirty miles, it is necessary to make an early start, and in order to arrive here for the morning market they most probably toil all night.
CHINESE CEMETERYCHINESE CEMETERY.
CHINESE CEMETERY.
Most of the Chinese who die here are buried, but some are cremated. The disposition of the body rests altogether with the wife and children of the deceased. Very many, however, return to their native land, after amassing a good pile of Mexican dollars, to lay their bones in the ancestral burying-ground, where their spirits may be worshiped in turn by their descendants.
Although the different provinces in China have their own peculiar superstitions and customs, yet when they come here they assimilate to a certain degree. Every three or four years some person turns up who claims that the spirit of their god has entered into him, and he is put through the crucial test of sitting on iron spikes and sharp swords, having needles thrust into his cheeks and his tongue cut. That one who can obtain an inscription written with the blood from the tongue is considered highly favored. If he can endure all this torture unflinchingly, his claim is considered genuine. They then prepare for a grand procession by land or water. If on the river, the god is seated on a throne in a gayly-decorated boat, accompanied by a long line of boats with flags, banners and streamers flying and gongs beating. The Chinese love dearly to “strike the loud cymbal.” These occasions are to Young China what the Fourth of July is to Young America, a time of fire-crackers and deafening noises. The more grotesquely the occupants of the boats are dressed the more imposing the ceremony.
The wealthy classes build very pleasant, comfortable brick houses. The walls of the verandas are decorated with flowering plants and shrubbery placed in fancy Chinese flower-pots. The indispensable Chinese lantern is suspended from the roof of the veranda. In the interior of the house you will find the shrine of the household god, and over it is placed a number of fancy-colored and gilt papers containing inscriptions, perhaps the daily petitions or prayers of the household.
The Chinese are a religious people, every house having its altar. But “their rock is not as our Rock, themselves being judges.” At sundown they will burn gilt paper and incense-sticks to Joss, and turn in the midst of their devotions and curse a European, calling him a “white devil.” We have been accustomed from childhood to think of the “father of lies” as a very black spirit, and it seems very strange to us to have these dusky faces call himwhite.
The furniture of some of these houses is very handsome. The same black, straight-backed settees and chairs seen everywhere in China are here, some of them handsomely inlaid with ivory, mother-of-pearl and fine porcelain.
PAPER PRAYERSPAPER PRAYERS.
PAPER PRAYERS.
The Chinese are a polite people too. If you visit them in their homes, and they have been accustomed to mingle with Europeans, they will offer you their hand or will chin-chin, bowing very low and shaking their own hands. You are invited to sit down, and a cup of excellent tea in its purity is offered in the daintiest of cups. One is tempted to covet some of those beautiful table-covers, screens or fans, all so richly embroidered in bright-colored silks. Some of the fans are white silk, with birds and flowers painted on them.
“But small the bliss that sense alone bestows,And sensual bliss is all the nation knows;In florid beauty groves and fields appear:Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.”
“But small the bliss that sense alone bestows,And sensual bliss is all the nation knows;In florid beauty groves and fields appear:Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.”
“But small the bliss that sense alone bestows,
And sensual bliss is all the nation knows;
In florid beauty groves and fields appear:
Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.”
PARLOR OF CHINESE HOUSEPARLOR OF CHINESE HOUSE.
PARLOR OF CHINESE HOUSE.
In the cool of the evening the working classes gather in groups round the doors of their houses, talking, laughing and smoking. One of the number is perhaps entertaining the others with music on a little instrument resembling a violin. But there is no music in it. If the reader would like to reproduce the sound, let him try drawing the bow over the violin-strings back and forth in a seesaw manner for an hour or two at a time, and he will have a faint idea of the distracting sounds drawn from the tortured instrument. There is not the slightest approach to melody.
The scantily-clad coolie is not æsthetic, but as a nation the Chinese are very much so. If they have the means they surround themselves with beautiful things, such as silk, embroideries, paintings, carving in ivory, lacquer-ware, mosaics, birds and flowers. Their ladies paint their faces to look beautiful. But these stay in their native land; a Chinese woman is rarely seen in Siam.
See that group of Chinamen who have been invited to a party given by the foreign minister on the king’s birthday. They walk up and down through the drawing-room and halls, so that we have a fine opportunity for seeing them in full dress. Thin loose trousers of blue silk, almost concealed by a robe of elegant silk richly embroidered, a cape of the same covering the shoulders; Chinese slippers embroidered and turned up at the toes; a hat (which they wear all the evening) resembling a butter-bowl; and, to complete the grand toilette, they flourish exquisite fans in silk and ivory. They make frequent visits to the refreshment-room, and seem to enjoy the good things provided.
Many of those coming here from China cannot swim a stroke, and yet they will venture out on the river in a little boat, perhaps a leakysampan, which they do not know how to manage, or they will crowd into a larger boat until it is weighed down to the water’s edge, scarcely leaving room to use the paddles. In this condition they will attempt to cross the river when it is very rough and dangerous. Perhaps they will reach the opposite shore safely, or, becoming excited, they lose all presence of mind, and, screaming and shouting at one another, completely demoralized, they are carried by the swiftly-flowing current upon the anchor-chain of some vessel lying in the river; the boat is upset and they are left struggling in deep water. Some of them may succeed in getting hold of the chain or rope and cling to it until rescued, whilst others are carried under the ship by the strong current, and are never again seen alive. Like most heathen, they are fatalists, and it would seem sometimes as if they sought death, from their persistently reckless manner when danger threatens them. They will run their little boats across the bow of large boats, even steamers, and, as they are probably moving with the current, a collision is almost inevitable. It is no unusual thing to see the bodies of Chinamen floating up and down at the mercy of the ebbing and flowing tides, until finally they reach the sea and disappear for ever.
There is a superstition that if you rescue any one from drowning the water-spirits will resent the interference and claim at some future time the rescuer as a substitute; hence the stolidity and indifference in Siam about rescuing the drowning. New missionaries are always startled to see a boatload of people upset in the river, and shocked that none of the people in the other boats attempt to offer any assistance.
As gardeners the Chinese are very successful, and when we consider the few rude implements they have to work with it is wonderful that they succeed so well. Their spade is not much larger than a man’s hand, with a short straight handle—no head to hold by nor rest for the foot; consequently, all the force used in digging must come from the shoulders and arms. The sickle is similar to that used in many parts of Europe at the present day; the plough, drawn by oxen, does not differ perhaps in any respect from the one the prophet Elisha left to follow Elijah.
The Chinese do not cultivate the paddy-fields to any great extent, but buy the rice from the producers and bring it to the Bangkok market. Theseri-leaf, which is used so extensively in Siam, is cultivated in the betel-gardens. It is a vine trained on poles, and the leaf, which is a bright green, tender and juicy, resembles the leaf of the morning-glory vine, and is cultivated with great care. Decayed fish is used as a fertilizer, and consequently the breezes which blow over these gardens are not “spicy breezes,” but, on the contrary, very offensive, obliging one in passing to suspend respiration for a time. The leaves are picked when young and tied up in bundles, and carried round for sale in little boats. This leaf, covered with a pink lime paste and a little tobacco and betel-nut added, is rolled up cross-wise and chewed. The consequence is, their teeth are black as coal and the mouth is always full of red saliva, which runs out of the mouth over the chin, and is almost as disgusting as the practice of tobacco-chewing amongst Americans.
The Presbyterians have done no special work amongst the Chinese proper in Siam. There are a number of elderly Chinamen in the mission churches, but many of the male members are Siamo-Chinese. In the mission boarding-school for boys more than half the number are sons of Chinamen, and they are the brightest and most encouraging pupils. Many of the missionaries hold the opinion that China proper is the legitimate field in which to teach Christianity to the Chinese. It is very difficult to get educated Chinese teachers in Siam.
TheRev.Wm. Dean,D.D., was the first missionary to the Chinese in Siam. He was sent out by the Baptist Association, and arrived in Bangkok July 18, 1835. This venerable father, now in his seventy-seventh year, is still doing active service for the Master in this part of his vineyard. He stood alone for many years, but recently he has been reinforced by the arrival of theRev.L. A. Eaton.
The Chinese all learn enough of the Siamese language to make themselves understood, and they can get a saving knowledge of the truth through the medium of the Siamese language if their hearts are so inclined. Already both Siamese and Chinese in Siam are accepting the gospel, so that we see the dawn of that glorious time promised when “the heathen” will “be given as an inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession” to Christ.