atame.se adjuration. 



2S3 



observed, that they are materialists and atheists, not- 

 withstanding that Brahma and other Hindoo goJs 

 find a place in their ritual. In some sense they are 

 |r»! yt heists ; but suire their deities are abstracted 

 from the idea of the creation of the imi ■ erse, ami 

 were themselves created beiuirs, they can liardly he 

 viewed in any other li^ht than that in which they 

 have been here represented. 



I now speak of Hie genuine Siamese Booddhism ; 

 not of the dogmas whichjnay have been ingrafted 

 on it. It might naturally he asked, what religion 

 this people has to grapple with conscience ? It may 

 satisfactorily, I presume, be urged in reply, that their 

 religious system embraces not only severe temporal 

 retribution, but, as before adverted to, the most com- 

 plicated and awful degrees of punishment in a future 

 state, for cl imes committed in this world; amongst 

 which falsehood is especially held up to vengea n t . 

 I have already treated this subject in my account of 

 the Prabaat* and shall not therefore enlarge further 

 upon it here. Adjurations in Siam lake place almost 

 invariably within the preciuts of a pagoda or temple 

 of Ifooddha. 



The frreat oath of Siam embodies a formidable 

 array of imprecations. Mr. Crawford obtained a 

 translation of it out of a manuscript of mine, and it 

 will be found in his account of his mission to Siam. 

 1 have tlr mght it requisite, however, to insert it here, 

 in order to render this chapter more complete. It 

 is pretty fair evidence to prove the low mark at 

 which veracity stands, or stood at least, when the 

 oath was framed in that country. To a mind dim- 

 med by superstition, whether puerile, poetical, or 

 gloomy, nolhmg cau be mure bewildering than the 



* VUtc Tnmmetitms of the tloyal A«**ic SMiciety of Great Ufitam an4 

 Ire laud. 



, en 



