THE KING'S MAHOUT 11 



Siam. Also the houses as often as not are in 

 wretched condition, for it seems to be traditional 

 with the Siamese not to repair them, but when 

 they have tumbled about their ears, to vacate and 

 build another: not a particularly expensive plan, 

 since the house consists of loosely put together 

 bamboo raised on stilts six to eight feet ; and bam- 

 boo grows at everyone's back door in Siam. 



Siamese food principally consists of dried, fre- 

 quently rotted fish, and rice, done into curries 

 which comprise a little of about every kind of 

 condiment, and especially a very popular sauce 

 called namphrik, a chutney-like and thoroughly 

 mixed thing made of red pepper, shrimp, garlic, 

 onions, citron, ginger, and tamarind seeds. The 

 only reason for the fish being putrid is because the 

 natives like it so, for fish are plentiful in the 

 rivers and fishermen numerous, though their ways 

 of catching are rather amusing and antique. One 

 favorite method, borrowed from the Chinese, is 

 beating the waters with long bamboo sticks to 

 frighten the fish into an eight or ten foot squarish 

 net which is lowered into the river from a frame- 

 work on the bank by a system of wheels and ropes 

 and pulleys ; and hoisted up again when the catch 

 is complete. I must confess that when the fish in 

 the curry chanced to be dried instead of decayed, 

 I found the concoction toothsome. In fact a really 



