OF SI AM 45 



different games. The bodies of those intended for 

 private cremation are embalmed and usually kept 

 for some time, even for many months. A Sia- 

 mese gentleman in inviting me to the forthcoming 

 conflagration of a brother, added that the remains 

 had been awaiting combustion for a year! 



All Siam is divided into three parts: (1) That 

 tributary to and dependent upon the Mekong 

 River, which rises far in the north and with a 

 great bend to the east flows south, emptying 

 through several mouths into the China Sea, after 

 a devious course of two thousand five hundred 

 miles. (2) That upon the Salwin Eiver, which 

 also rises far in the north, not more than one hun- 

 dred and fifty to two hundred miles to the west 

 of the Mekong's source, and flowing south sweeps 

 to the west, into the Bay of Bengal. And (3) that 

 upon the Meinam— mother of rivers— which rises 

 not so far in the north and flows due south, empty- 

 ing into the Gulf of Siam. Politically speaking, 

 all Siam appears to be divided: (1) Into that 

 (Mekong) which French jingoism seems to view 

 as destined by especial Providence as solely for 

 their colonial exploitation; (2) that (Meinam) 

 which no one disputes as being purely Siamese; 

 and (3) that (Salwin) which serves as the extreme 

 boundary of British jurisdiction. 



French geographers since 1866 have been re- 



