COCOA-NUTS FULL GROWN AND JUST FORMING.
They found the milk of the cocoa-nut a cool and refreshing beverage; and, on the assurance of the consul that they might take all they wished without fear of injury to their digestion, they proceeded with the demolition of more and more nuts, until the basket was emptied. The consul told them that the juice of the green cocoa-nut was a favorite beverage throughout Siam, and was considered by some people as far safer to drink than the water of the river.
"There is a good deal of vegetable matter in the river water," said he, "and it is undoubtedly the cause of derangements of the stomachwhen freely used. But the juice of the nut is pure and healthy, and its slightly acid taste makes it welcome to the palate. It is cool, as you have seen, and the acidity doubtless causes it to seem to be of a lower temperature than the surrounding atmosphere."
THE BREAD-FRUIT.
Fred asked if the famous bread-fruit was in the lot they had bought, and was rather disappointed at its absence. But a bread-fruit tree was pointed out to him as they floated down the river, and he made note of the fact that it was about forty feet high, and had a leaf nearly two feet long. The fruit resembled a large, very large apple, or perhaps a small melon; and the Doctor told him that the outer husk furnished a fibre like that of the cocoa-nut, which could be made into a sort of coarse cloth.
The Doctor further explained that the bread-fruit was baked in the shell, the same as an oyster is roasted, and that the inner pulp, when thus cooked, resembled a sweet-potato in taste, and was very nutritious. To the touch it was not unlike the soft part of a loaf of bread, and its name was due to this latter quality rather than to its taste. "It forms," said he, "the chief sustenance of the inhabitants of many of the islands of the South Pacific Ocean, and is to be found nearly everywhere in the tropics. It was introduced into the West Indies about a century ago, and its cultivation has been very successful in that region; later it was planted in Central America, and has become so well known and used that the natives rely largely upon it for their food. The product of three trees in some of the Pacific Islands will support a man for a year; and it is no wonder that he becomes lazy when he has nothing to do but pluck his food from a tree."
PINEAPPLE.
When they had finished with the cocoa-nuts, they had a fine pineapple; and they remarked that its freshness made it sweeter and better than any pineapple they had ever eaten at home. Frank made a sketch of this fruit, with its long and sharp-pointed leaves, and then he drew the inside of a fruit which, for want of a better name, he called a star-apple. It had a purple skin, and resembled an orange in shape and size; the pulp was white, and, when it was cut across, the cells for the seeds showed the exact form of a star. Fruit after fruit was cut, in the hope that one would be found without the star; but the effort was a complete failure.
STAR-APPLE.
Of course they had oranges in abundance; and they had half a dozen fruits whose names were quite unknown to them, but which were all delicious. Fred lamented that the attempt to tell about the flavor of a strange fruit was like trying to describe the song of a bird, or the perfume of a flower. So they concluded that the best thing for them to do was to eat the fruit and admire it; and if anybody wanted to know what it was like, he would refer him to the article itself, and let him judge of the quality.
A NEW KIND OF FRUIT.
While seated on the deck of the boat, and engaged in testing the peculiarities of an orange, Frank espied something on a tree that grew close to the water. Thinking it might be a new kind of fruit, he called the Doctor's attention to his discovery; the latter said the strange thing was nothing more nor less than the nest of a bird, and would hardly prove edible. Frank's illusion was broken, as the Doctor spoke, by a small bird that hopped on a limb in front of the supposed fruit, and at the same instant the head of another bird appeared from a hole in the nest. Evidently the nest was constructed of cotton, or something of the sort, as it was nearly snow-white in color; it hung from the limb, so that it swayed in the wind, and it was not at all surprising that Frank had mistaken it for a variety of fruit hitherto unknown to him.
TAILOR-BIRD AND NEST.
"That nest is not so remarkable," said the Doctor, "as the one made by the tailor-bird, an inhabitant of Siam and the tropical parts of India and Malacca. It chooses a leaf on a small twig, and then proceeds to puncture a row of holes along the edge with its beak, just as a shoemaker uses an awl for making holes in a piece of leather. When it has thus perforated the leaf, it takes a long fibre from a plant, and passes it through the holes. The operation of sewing is imitated with great exactness, and the fibre is pulled, like a thread, until the edges of the leaf are drawn towards each other and form a hollow cone. If the bird cannotfind a single leaf large enough for its purpose, it sews two leaves together; and instances have been known where three leaves were used. When the framework of the nest is completed, the bird fills the interior with the softest down it can gather from plants, and it thus has a home which it is next to impossible to discover among the leaves. There is another bird that lives near watercourses and marshes, and constructs a nest by sewing the reeds and rushes together; but its work is not so perfect as that of the tailor-bird, and does not entitle him to equal credit."
Frank was anxious to obtain one of these nests as a curiosity, and was gratified, on his return to Bangkok, to find one for sale in the hands of a native. He bought it, and had it carefully packed, so that he could send it home without fear of injury in the next box of curiosities they should despatch to America.
From birds the conversation wandered to fishes, and the boys learnedsomething that caused their eyes to open with astonishment. Lest it should be forgotten, it was entered in both their note-books, and read as follows:
"There is a fish in Siam, and other parts of the East, that has the remarkable peculiarity of going overland from one pond to another. When the water where they are dries up, the fishes start for the nearest pond, though it may be several miles away; and they propel themselves by means of their fins, very much as a turtle drags himself with his feet. Their instinct is unerring, and they have never been known to make a mistake about heading for the water that is nearest. It is said that you may take one of them up and turn him around half a dozen times, till he is dizzy, but he will not lose his points of compass. When he is put down again he takes the proper direction, and though you put him off the track ever so many times, he always returns to it."
"We shall next hear, I suppose, that there are fishes that climb trees," Fred remarked, as he finished his note on the fishes that go overland.
"Quite possibly," Frank replied; "let us ask the Doctor."
They asked the question, and were taken somewhat aback when Doctor Bronson answered in the affirmative.
A CLIMBING-FISH.
"I don't know," said he, "if there are any fish in Siam that climb trees, but there is one in Brazil that can perform this feat. He does not ascend a perpendicular tree, but when he finds one that slopes at an angle of about forty-five degrees, and has its roots in the water, he will venture on an excursion in the air. His scales are very large, and he works himself forward by a motion of the lower ones as they press against the bark of the tree. He hugs the tree with his fins in order to maintain his balance; his movements in climbing are very slow, and he certainly appears to better advantage in the water, where he is a rapid and graceful swimmer.You see that a fish out of water is not always the unhappy creature he has been supposed to be by most persons."
"I heard somebody say one day," said Fred, "that oysters grow on trees in some parts of the world. Is that really so?"
"Certainly," was the Doctor's answer; "they do grow on trees, but not in the way you are naturally led to suppose."
"How is it, then, Doctor?" queried Frank.
"It is quite simple when you understand it," was the response. "The spawn of the oyster floats in the water, and attaches itself to the first thing with which it comes in contact. It frequently happens that, at high-tide, the water comes up a little way on the trunk of a tree, or it may be that a limb of a tree hangs in the water. The oyster-spawn is attached to the trunk or limb, as the case may be, and when the tide goes away it remains there. It has enough vitality to live until the tide comes again; it retains its hold, and in course of time becomes an oyster growing on a tree. He could not live altogether without water, but hecan easily get along during the intervals of the tides. He does not grow on a tree like an apple or an orange, but he certainly makes the tree his home."
"Do they have oysters in Siam?" one of the boys asked.
"Oysters grow in the Gulf of Siam," was the reply; "but they are not equal to those of the Atlantic coast of the United States. As for that matter, no oysters in any part of the world can or do equal ours; at least in the opinion of residents of the United States. Here in the East Indies they have some very large oysters; there is one variety that often attains a weight of three hundred pounds; it is not good for anything, however, and you never hear a man in a restaurant calling for a dozen of this variety on the half-shell.
"Naturalists have described about sixty varieties of oysters in different parts of the world, and it is said that more than two hundred species of fossil oysters have been found by geologists. Most of these forms are now extinct, and, therefore, we have no way of determining whether all of them have been good to eat or otherwise. It is often remarked that the first man who ate an oyster must have been very brave, and it is a pity that his name has not come down to us. One version of the story is that he thrust his fingers into an open shell which he saw lying on the sea-shore; the oyster was angry at this intrusion, and immediately closed on the fingers, very much to the man's astonishment. It required a great deal of wrenching to liberate them from the shell, and they were somewhat injured in the operation; the man naturally put his fingers in his mouth to relieve the pain, and in so doing he learned the taste of the oyster. Having learned it, he immediately smashed the shell with a stone and devoured the contents, and he continued to eat oysters till he had made a hearty meal. Always after that, when he was hungry, he went to the oyster-bank and satisfied his appetite, and from being thin as a skeleton he grew fat and rosy. His neighbors noted the change, and one day when he was proceeding stealthily to his favorite retreat they watched him and found his secret. When it was once out, the news spread with great rapidity, and thus was inaugurated the habit of eating the oyster. When this occurred no one knows; but the fact is that the ancient Romans and Greeks were fond of the oyster, and esteemed it greatly as an article of food.
"Another remarkable fact is—"
Before the Doctor could finish the sentence, Frank sprung to his feet in an excited manner, and pointed to a tree that stood not twenty feet from the bank of the river.
"See that great snake!" he shouted; "and see that squirrel in front of him!"
THE SNAKE AND THE SQUIRREL.
A snake was coiled around the limb of the tree with his neck bent, and his head slowly waving in the air. His body glistened in the sunlight as it played on his scales, and Frank fancied he could see the fire darting from his eyes. A foot or so in front of him was a squirrel, sitting on his haunches, and with his tail erect; his eyes were fixed on the serpent, and he was chattering wildly, and as if greatly alarmed.
While they looked at the strange spectacle, the head of the snake was darted forward, and in an instant the poor little squirrel was transfixed by the deadly fangs. Frank wished they had been able to save the squirrel by killing the snake, but his wishing was of no avail, as they were moving down the stream; and, besides, they had no fire-arms with which the serpent could have been disturbed in his retreat up the tree.
"I suppose the squirrel was charmed by the snake," said Fred, as soon as they had passed out of sight of the tree.
"As to that," replied Doctor Bronson, "there is much dispute. Many persons who have studied the subject are positive that snakes have the power of charming or fascinating small birds and animals; and others,who have studied it quite as much, deny that any such power exists. I have heard so much on both sides, that I am not able to form a positive opinion. I am inclined, however, to believe that the power is possessed by certain snakes, as I have seen manifestations of it, or something very like it. When I was a boy in the country, I one day saw a large black snake in an apple-tree on my uncle's farm. A bird was hopping around on the limbs in great alarm, as I judged by his twitterings; he seemed to be terribly afraid of the snake, and at the same time unable to get away from him. I watched his movements for nearly half an hour, and observed that each time the bird moved he came nearer to the snake; and the performance ended by his lighting on a branch within a foot of where the latter was coiled. Then the snake darted his head forward and seized the bird, precisely as you saw that scaly fellow, a few moments ago, seize the squirrel.
"Exactly what the process of charming is, if it really exists, it is difficult to say. Probably the victim is paralyzed, to some extent, by the horrible appearance of the serpent, and deprived of the use of his limbs. If you suddenly come in contact with a ferocious wild beast, or some terrible danger is presented to you, it is not at all improbable that you will be unable to move from sheer fright. I am inclined to believe that the fascination of birds and small mammals by serpents is something of this sort, but I confess my inability to explain why the victim, in moving around, comes every moment nearer to his destroyer, as though he could not remove his eyes, however much he might wish to do so."
"If you travel around much in Siam," the consul remarked, "you will find all the snakes you care to see. It is not unusual to see them swimming in the river; and in the rainy season they frequently get into the houses, particularly those that float on the water. Most of them are harmless, but there are some poisonous ones, including the famouscobra di capella."
Frank thought he would prefer not to live in a floating house, for the present at least; and his opinion was shared by Fred. They were not at all enamored of the idea of having an intimate association with the wandering snakes of Siam.
MONKEYS AT HOME.
"I think," said the Doctor, "that if you were compelled to select some of the inhabitants of the Siamese forests as your companions, you would prefer monkeys to snakes. In the region north of here you could find an abundance of them, and of all sizes; they run wild in the forests, and sometimes are found in large droves. They are sociable beings, and very fond of each other's society; and if one of them gets into trouble,his companions are quite likely to come to his relief. A friend of mine was out hunting one day, and saw a monkey on a tree where a fair chance for a shot was presented. He fired and wounded the monkey, who immediately set up a piteous howl; in a few minutes dozens of monkeys were around him, and they seemed to understand that my friend was the cause of the trouble. He fled, and they pursued him; he fired his gun to frighten them, and, after knocking several of them over, he reached an open space of country, and was allowed to go on undisturbed. If he had been without his gun he would not have escaped so easily.
"Monkeys have a good many enemies besides man. Wild beasts devourthem, and occasionally snakes manage to take them in; the fellows are so active that they can only be captured by strategy, or their own carelessness and curiosity; and they often fall victims to the last-named quality. A tiger will lie down and pretend to be dead; the monkeys see him, and draw near to investigate. They approach cautiously, stop frequently, and do a deal of chattering. If the tiger stirs a muscle, they take the alarm at once and are off; but if he lies perfectly still, they are sure, in a little while, to come so close that one of the boldest will venture to pluck at his hide. As he does so he jumps several feet to one side, and if the tiger should rouse himself he would be baffled of his prey. He continues to lie as if dead; and finally the monkeys, believing he is really nothing but a carcass, proceed to sit on him and hold a coroner's inquest. Now is the tiger's chance; and with a sudden spring he has one of the fattest in his jaws, while the rest scamper away to the forest.
"Another enemy of the monkey is the eagle. When the monkeys are playing in the branches of a tree the eagle swoops down with great rapidity, and carries one of the party off in his powerful claws. Often there is a fearful struggle in the air, as the monkey is not inclined to die without a protest; and as he has a great deal of strength, and is full of activity, he occasionally comes off victorious and escapes, though he may be killed by the fall from the height where the eagle drops him. A gentleman of my acquaintance once witnessed the capture of a monkey by an eagle; the eagle fastened his claws in the back of the monkey, and, though the latter struggled violently, his hold was not once broken. The eagle flew to the top of a distant tree, where he undoubtedly devoured his victim at his leisure.
EAGLE CAPTURING A MONKEY.
"In seizing a monkey, the eagle always endeavors to grasp him by the back and neck, one claw being in the neck, and the other farther down. The reason of this is that, unless the monkey is firmly held by the neck, he will turn his head and inflict a terrible bite on his assailant; but as long as the neck is thus held he is powerless. It is said that the first thing the eagle does, after taking a monkey, is to put out his eyes with his powerful beak; but in so doing he is in danger of having his head seized by the monkey's paws."
"On the whole," said Frank, "I don't think I care about forming an intimate acquaintance with the monkey."
Fred was of the same opinion, and the subject of conversation was changed.
On their arrival at Bangkok, our friends found that the king had returned, and was to begin on the following day his annual visits to the temples of the city. Once a year he goes in state to the temples, and about two weeks are consumed in making the rounds of all of them. The Siamese attach much importance to this ceremony, as their country is considered the principal seat of the Buddhist religion, and the king is its first defender. Therefore it is considered necessary that he should worship officially at the shrines of the leading temples of the capital, in addition to his daily worship in the temples attached to the grand palace.
The consul arranged to accompany Doctor Bronson and the youths to one of the temples the king was to visit, so that they might see the procession, and have a glimpse of the ruler of Siam. About ten o'clock in the forenoon they left the hotel in their boat, and a half-hour's pull up and across the river brought them to the spot. They spent a little while in the inspection of the temple and its surroundings: they had visited the same temple in the first days of their stay in Bangkok, and therefore many things were familiar to their eyes. But where it had been quiet before all was now activity, and there was a considerable assemblage of people, who had come, like themselves, to witness the ceremony.
After a time there was a stir, and the announcement was made that the king was coming. The boys looked up the river in the direction of the palace, and, sure enough, there was the royal procession; and it was a sight that almost took away the breath of both Frank and Fred.
STATE BARGE OF THE KING OF SIAM.
There was a flotilla of a dozen or more boats and barges of the most gorgeous description our friends had ever seen. The largest of them was occupied by the king, and had a hundred and twenty men to row, or rather to paddle it. The boat was said to be fifty yards in length, but nobody was able to say positively what were its exact dimensions; at any rate, it was long enough and handsome enough to satisfy the most fastidious spectator. The rowers were in a double line, and in scarlet uniforms;at each stroke they raised their paddles high in air, and their movements were so timed that the paddles on both sides were dipped at exactly the same moment. The boat sat quite low in the water, and its stern had a sharp and high curve to it that doubtless made the middle of the craft appear lower than it really was. The bow was bent upwards as high as the stern, and Frank thought it could not be less than ten or twelve feet out of the water. It appeared to be much heavier than the stern, and was fantastically carved; the Doctor told the boys that the carving was intended to represent theNagha Mustakha Sapta, or seven-headed serpent, which is one of the mythological deities of Siam.
Considerably nearer to the stern than the bow there was a sort of throne elevated on four pillars, and having a gorgeous canopy above it. On this throne the king was seated; the canopy had a spire like that of some of the temples, and consequently the seat in the barge possessed a certain religious character. Near him were attendants holding canopies not altogether unlike umbrellas, and at a distance these canopies suggested the appearance of golden cones. The boat was driven rapidly through the water by the powerful arms of its rowers, and their movements were timed by a man waving ahuge baton, after the manner of the drum-major of a brass band. The other boats moved at the same speed; they were smaller than that of the king, some of them having no more than thirty or forty rowers; and they belonged to the Siamese nobles and ministers of state, who were required to accompany the king on his official visits to the temples.
The gilding and bright colors on the boats were fairly dazzling to the eyes of the young travellers. In all their travels hitherto, they had seen nothing half as gorgeous as this spectacle, and Frank was inclined to pinch himself to make sure he was not dreaming. He was destined to be still more astonished when told that the king's boat was inlaid with mother-of-pearl and crystal, and with sparkling shells and bright stones, so that it resembled a piece of jewellery for the use of a giant such as the world never saw. He wondered what must have been the cost of such a boat, but there was no one who could tell him.
A BODY OF THE ROYAL GUARDS.
Soon the boat was at the little platform which served as a landing-place in front of the temple. A file of soldiers, uniformed somewhat after the European manner, and carrying rifles of foreign manufacture, was drawn up near the path where his majesty would pass on his way to the temple door; they were commanded by an officer whose complexion was of the Siamese tint, and who spoke English so fluently that the boys thought he must have had a most excellent teacher, and been a very apt pupil. They were undeceived when they learned that he was a native of Philadelphia, and formerly served in the army of the United States. Doctor Bronson observed that the soldiers were well drilled, as they went through the manual of arms with the precision of a regiment of English or American infantry.
The Siamese army is drilled after the European manner, and has had drill-masters from the United States and half the countries of Europe in the last thirty years. The navy is also under foreign management, andthe harbor-master of the port of Bangkok is an Englishman, who has lived there a long time. Several foreigners are in the custom-house and other official service, and the steamers of the navy have European engineers. The foreigners in the Siamese service are well paid, and generally get along easily with the natives. Some of them are greatly trusted by the king, and have shown themselves fully worthy of the royal confidence.
In time of war the entire male population of the country capable of bearing arms is liable to be called out, and every man is bound to serve as a defender of his nation. Whenever soldiers are wanted, the king sends a command to the governors of the various provinces, and tells them what their quota will be, and they are expected to comply immediately with the demand. The troops thus levied are fed and clothed and armed at the expense of the government, but they do not receive any pay in money; and when the emergency for which they were wanted is passed they are dismissed and sent home. The standing army in time of peace is quite small, and the soldiers are fed and clothed, and their pay in money is about six dollars a month. The Siamese navy contained, at the time our friends were at Bangkok, about a dozen steam gun-boats, carrying from two to ten guns each, and several new vessels were on the stocks in the royal dock-yards. A large naval force is not needed in Siam, and the king wisely refrains from expending a great deal of money on useless ships of war.
THE KING VISITING A TEMPLE.
The king stepped ashore on the little platform previously mentioned, and mounted a sedan-chair, on which he was to be carried to the temple. His head was protected from the sun by a canopy like a large umbrella; and both the seat and canopy were gayly decorated, and shone with gilding. As the bearers proceeded with their royal burden, the people knelt in homage to their ruler, and the strictest silence was observed. One after another the nobles and high officials landed from their boats, and proceeded to the temple, surrounded or followed by their attendants. It was a novel spectacle to the boys, this procession of dignitaries, and they watched it with great interest. Each of the officials had a man to carry his pipe and tobacco, another for his betel-box, another for his tray, holding a teacup and a pot of tea; and some of them had two or three others for the transportation of various things. The betel-boxes were of gold, and most exquisitely wrought, and they must have cost a great deal of money to make. The prime-minister was the last to arrive, and the boys were told that the ceremony would not begin till he had entered the temple.
THE FRONT OF THE TEMPLE.
The strangers were not invited to see the services inside the building,and therefore they remained where they were till the king came out and returned to his boat. The ceremony lasted about half an hour, and consisted of the repetition of prayers by the priests, and responses by the king; it was said to be not unlike the celebration of mass in a Catholic church, and it has been remarked by many visitors to the Far East that the forms of Buddhist worship have a considerable resemblance to those of Rome.
The king went to his boat, which was drawn up to the platform as before; and as soon as he was seated, the signal was given to the rowers to move on. Away they paddled to another temple, situated up one of the canals; and the other boats followed the royal one as rapidly as possible. By taking a path through some gardens near the temple, our friends reached a point on the bank of the canal where they could see all the boats as they went along.
After the procession had gone the boys wanted to ramble through the tall grass, but changed their minds when told that possibly they mightencounter a cobra or some other deadly snake. Cobras are not unfrequently found around the Siamese temples; and though accidents are not of common occurrence, there are enough of them to make a stranger careful about his promenades.
It was past noon, and the heat of the sun was not of the lightest. The Doctor suggested a return to the hotel, and the boys were quite willing to accept it, as they wanted to think over the strange spectacle they had witnessed. They thought they had done quite enough for one day, and considered that they had been very fortunate in seeing the king, and witnessing one of the pageants for which Siam is celebrated.
On their way back in the boat, Frank asked the Doctor to tell him something about the use of the betel-nut. They had observed that the king was vigorously chewing the substance, which is to the Siamese what tobacco is to many Americans, and the ministers of state were following his example. All classes of people indulged in the amusement, and their mouths had a reddish appearance in consequence.
"The leaf of the betel-pepper," said the Doctor, "and the nut of the areca-palm are prepared as follows: the nut is sliced quite thin, and a little quicklime is sprinkled on it, so as to give it a pungent flavor, and the two substances are then wrapped in the leaf. In this form it is taken into the mouth and chewed, and the operation is generally performed with a very vigorous action of the jaws. The saliva has a reddish tint, and it is so bright that many strangers are deluded into the belief that the natives are spitting blood. The practice of chewing this substance began originally in the Malay peninsula, but it has gradually spread all over India, the countries of Indo-China, and the Malay Archipelago. Would you like to try it?"
The boys had the curiosity to make an experiment with the betel-nut; and, as soon as they reached the hotel, the Doctor made their wants known to the landlord. In a little while some of the substance was brought, and the youths ventured to chew it.
A very short trial was quite sufficient. They found the taste anything but agreeable; and Frank thought the same sensation could be had by dissolving in the mouth a piece of alum as large as a small pea, or a more extensive piece of lime. The delusion might be kept up by adding any common leaf and a few grains of pepper, and Fred was confident that it would require a long time for him to be accustomed to it. "Of course," said he, "one might learn in time to like betel, just as men in America learn to like tobacco; but, as far as I can judge, the taste of tobacco is the less disagreeable of the two."
The astringency of the betel-nut was removed from the tongues of the experimenters by a free use of the milk of green cocoa-nuts; and each of the boys made a quiet promise to himself that he would not learn to chew betel for anything in the world.
"And we may as well include tobacco," said Frank, "and leave it to rest at the side of betel. I certainly don't like the process of chewing betel, and it is no worse than that of chewing the favorite weed of America."
Fred agreed with his cousin, and the two concluded that they would not adopt the habit of many of their countrymen. Just then it occurred to them that they had not seen any other people than their own using tobacco in this form, and so they asked the Doctor if the habit was exclusively an American one.
THE TOBACCO-PLANT.
"Practically so," was the Doctor's answer. "In no other country than ours is the habit of chewing tobacco at all prevalent; a few sailors and others who have lived or been in the United States have adopted and carried it home, and these are virtually the only people not Americans who indulge in it. Other nations are far greater smokers than ourselves, but we have very nearly a monopoly of chewing the leaf of the famous plant of Virginia."
SIR WALTER RALEIGH AND HIS PIPE.
One of the boys asked if tobacco was not first found in America; he thought he had read that it was used by the Indians at the time of the discovery of the Western Continent by Columbus, and was introduced to Europe by Sir Walter Raleigh.
"I am unable to answer your question with exactness," said the Doctor, "for the simple reason that the matter is involved in obscurity. It is said by some historians that the sailors accompanying Columbus were one day greatly astonished at seeing smoke issuing from the mouths and nostrils of some of the natives, and they found, on investigation, that it was produced by the combustion of a fragrant herb or plant. On their return they introduced it into Spain and Portugal. In 1560 Jean Nicot was ambassador of France at the Court of Lisbon, and learned the use of tobacco from a merchant who had been in America. When he next went to France, he presented the weed to the queen, and it soon became known throughout Europe. From him it was calledL'herbe Nicotienne, or "the Nicotian weed," and the name has come down to our times. Near the same period Sir Francis Drake introduced it into England, and Sir Walter Raleigh made it fashionable; so rapidly did the use of it spread that in less than twenty years nearly every class of society was addicted to it.
"Some writers contend that tobacco, or some similar plant, was smoked in Asia long before the discovery of America; in proof of this they assert that the pipe in nearly its present form is to be seen on many ancient sculptures; and it is certainly singular that a people so conservative as the Chinese and other Asiatics should have made the use of tobacco universal in the comparatively short period that has elapsed since its discovery in America. On the other hand, we can infer that it was not known in Asia as early as the eighth century, because the tales of the Arabian Nights, which are supposed to be a perfect picture of the customs of that time, make no mention of smoking."
"Does Marco Polo make any mention of it in his travels in Asia?" Fred asked. "If it had been known in his time, I think he would have been pretty certain to say something about it."
"I believe he makes no allusion to it," the Doctor responded; "and this fact is quoted by those who contend that the practice was of American origin. But, whatever the origin of smoking tobacco, the custom has spread over the whole globe, and prevails among savages no less than among the most civilized and enlightened nations. All classes of people, from highest to lowest, are smokers; and, though the practice has been the subject of severe penalties, it has continued to spread. Laws were passed against it by several governments. In Russia, smokers were punished by having a pipe-stem passed through the cartilage of the nose for their first offence; and for a second, they were ordered to be flogged to death. Sultan Amurath IV. ordered that all smokers should be strangled; and in Switzerland it was officially announced that the use of tobacco was oneof the sins forbidden by the Ten Commandments. The Popes of Rome issued edicts against it; and one of them, Urban VII., decreed the excommunication of all who should use tobacco. King James wrote the famous 'Counterblast against Tobacco,' and other publications were made condemning the importation of Sir Walter Raleigh; but all to no purpose. The practice could not be put down; and to-day there is no article of luxury or dissipation that is so universally known as tobacco.
"There are about forty different varieties of tobacco described by botanists which are smoked, or chewed, or snuffed, in various parts of the world. By far the greater part of the tobacco used annually is smoked, and in some countries snuff-taking, like chewing the weed, is practically unknown. In nine cases out of ten in America the use of tobacco begins by smoking, and in other countries the proportion is probably a hundred times as great. The tobacco used in Asia and in some parts of Europe is much milder than that of America. England is the largest consumer of strong tobacco outside of the United States, and the revenue derived from it by the British custom-house goes far towards paying the expenses of the government.
PIPES OF ALL NATIONS.
"Tobacco was first smoked in pipes, and all the early representations of smokers contain no picture of the cigar. Sir Walter Raleigh used a pipe which was much like the one most popular in England at the present day, and it was not till long after his time that the leaf, rolled into a cigar, became fashionable. Different nations have adopted different forms for the pipe; and it is noticeable that the more indolent the people the longer is its pipe-stem. With the English and American pipe the smoker can enjoy himself while employed, but with the Eastern pipe he can do nothing else while smoking. With a cigar, or a short pipe, a man may write or work; but when he takes the hookah of Turkey, or the nargileh of Syria and Egypt, his occupation, other than smoking, must be limited to conversation and reading. Each country has adopted the form best suited to its tastes; and it would be the height of absurdity to give the ragged newsboys of New York an Oriental pipe-stem two yards in length, and expect them to enjoy it as they do the short stumps of cigars they gather in the street. On the other hand, the Turkish lady reclining on her divan would consider the short dhudeen of the Irish apple-woman a wretched substitute for the hookah, with its flexible stem and its bowl of water through which the smoke bubbles on its way to her mouth.
YOUNG AMERICA.
"Whether tobacco is injurious or otherwise has been a subject of much discussion, and the advocates on each side have said a great deal that their opponents will not admit. It would require more time than Ihave at my command to tell you even a tenth part of the arguments for and against tobacco, and therefore I will not enter upon the discussion of the subject. Volumes have been written upon it, and doubtless other volumes will find their way into print as the years roll on."
THE EAST.
THE WEST.
The boys occupied themselves very industriously in writing for their friends at home the accounts of what they had seen and heard in Siam. They told of the trip to Ayuthia, and the visit to the elephant corral; of their stay at Bang-pa-in; of the journey down the river; and, finally, of the flotilla of boats and barges, and the state procession of the king to the temples. When they had brought the story down to the hour of writing, there was a day to spare before the closing of the weekly mail to Singapore, and thence to America.
Frank thought it was time for him to say something specially intended for Mary and Effie; he remembered his letter from Japan about the women of that country, and concluded that a similar missive from Siam would be quite in order. Then he recollected that he had seen fewer women in his walks and rides about Bangkok than when he strolled through the streets of Tokio and Kioto, and that in all probability he could not tell as much of the Siamese as of the Japanese women, for the simple reason that he had not learned so much about them. But he was determined to make the effort, and, after talking with the Doctor on the subject, he wrote as follows:
SIAMESE GENTLEMAN AND LADY.
"The dress of the Siamese men is so much like that of the women that a stranger cannot tell at first whether he is looking at the one or the other. I will send you a picture, so that you may understand how they look much easier than if I took half a dozen pages in writing to tell it. You see that a gentleman and lady have the same garments, except that the lady wears a scarf over her shoulders, or rather over her left shoulder, and passing under her right arm. The gentleman has a tiny bit of a linen collar on his jacket, while the lady has none, and he also has wristbands, something after the European model. The trousers are like a piece of cloth four or five feet square, and one corner is tucked under a belt in the centre of the waist; the ladies generally wear brighter colors than their husbands, but the cut of the garment is practically the same.
"Nearly everybody goes barefoot; and when they do put anything on their feet, it is rarely more than a light sandal. The custom of wearing shoes and boots such as we have is never likely to become popular in a country so hot as this is, and where there is no snow or ice. Children, up to five or six years of age, have no garments of any consequence; and even when they are older, their clothing would not shield them from the cold if they were compelled to face a New York winter. A tailor would not make a fortune by coming to Siam and trying to get the people to wear clothes like American ones; and as for a corn doctor, he would have no chance at all where tight boots, or boots of any kind, are practically unknown.
"Then, too, they dress their hair in pretty much the same way, so that you cannot tell a man from a woman by looking at their heads, as you can in most other countries of the world. They shave all the lower part of the head, and leave the crown covered with a tuft, or bunch, that reminds you of a shoe-brush. The men have very light beards, like all Oriental people; and whenever one of them finds that he can raise a mustache or a beard, he is pretty sure to do so, as he wants to look unlike his neighbors. But as a general thing beards do not become the Oriental features, though mustaches do; and when I see a Chinese or a Japanese or a Siamese with a beard, which is not often, I feel like asking him to go home and shave it off.