396 A visit to Xiengmai. [No. 4, 
nuts were brought to me, grown at Xiengmai, the one measuring 
2 feet 8 inches, the other 2 feet 6 inches in circumference. 
Shaddocks or pumplemose, oranges, citrons and limes, bananas, 
and plantains are likewise raised, but of the two first kinds of fruits 
I have scarcely found one of a good taste. The Viceroy whom I 
met at Bangkok, told me, that there was only a single mangosteen 
tree in Xiengmai, and that in consequence of the cold temperature, it 
was in a sickly state and seldom produced fruit. At the bazar a number 
of kitchen herbs, may, however, be found, such as cucumbers, onions, 
garlic, beans, and lettuce. 
The customs of the Lao people resemble in general those of the 
Siamese. Marriage contracts are made verbally, the parents of the 
girl receiving a compensation from the future husband, for the loss 
which they suffer by having no further assistance from their daughter 
in their daily labour. The amount of that compensation depends 
upon the bride’s beauty, youth and family connections. It seems the 
minimum is 40 Rupees (£4) 
They practise cremation for such as die of a natural death—that 
is, if the relations can pay the expenses connected with it—but the 
remains of such as lose life by accident, as by drowning, by a fall, or 
being killed by an animal, cannot be burned but must be interred. 
The smoking of cigars is very common amongst the women—they 
sometimes use pipes which are made of the rhizoma or rootstock 
of the bamboo, nicely carved. Little girls, no more than 6 or 7 years 
of age imitate their elders. It is quite amusing to see with what 
gravity these children enjoy their weed. On the other hand, I have 
not seen that the Lao females use the betel-nut to the same extent as 
the Siamese: hence, as I have already observed, they do not show 
those distorted mouths which disfigure the sex in Bangkok, and render 
their teeth black and corroded. 
On the north-eastern angle of the town is an extensive marshy 
ground. During the rainy season it forms a large expanse of water 
which has given rise to the accounts that prevailed in the 17th and 
18th century, that it was a large lake, something like the fabled lake 
of Parince of the western continent, a kind of Caspian, and that the 
Menam flowed out of it. 
This famous lake which owes its existence to the low level of 
ground and its waters to the accumulation of rain or the overflowing 
