374 



ON SIAMESE LITERATURE. 



PART SECOND. 



Entertainments, Games and Amusements. 



There is nothing which at first sight would appear more strongly 

 demonstrative of the intercourse which at remote aeras may have existed 

 betwixt the various people of the earth — or of their physical vigor, and 

 mental energies and sentiments, than a description of their national games 

 and amusements. Here the character is boldly drawn forth and stands 

 in view divested of the shackles of time, or the marks of passing fashion 

 and caprice. Mankind, however, being the child of circumstances, and 

 being moulded into many varieties by the moral and physical agencies 

 which surround him, it may thence be inferred that even the games which 

 with slight modifications pervade nations, widely severed from each other, 

 and dissimilar in habits, are in many, perhaps most, cases the result of some 

 impelling principle common to man in every situation. 



The Siamese from being of a lively temperament, and of strong but 

 versatile passions, like other semi-barbarous tribes, are much addicted to 

 gaming, and also to many other less pernicious amusements. The Govern- 

 ment checks the unbounded licentiousness to which gaming would lead by 

 licensing gaming houses, where only games of chance may be played. At 

 the great festival called Wantroot or Songkhraan, ( Sankrdtiti of Hindoos,) 

 a general licence is sometimes given to the people to gamble free of duty. 

 The women are said to indulge in the pernicious delusion with equal eager- 

 ness as the men. The same passion for playing is found amongst the Bur- 

 mese. 



The universality of the game of Chess need not here be insisted on. 

 The Siamese are alike remarkable with other Asiatics for their clear-headed- 

 ness at this game ; and, were all other proofs of their possessing a consider- 

 able share of mental perspicacity removed, this one would redeem them 

 from the charge of being deficient in it. 



31ak rook ov Chess — The Khoon or king has with the other pieces, 

 fwith exception of the pawns,) the same relative positions as in the English 



