SIAMESE OATHS— PRIESTS. 



(or) may I be born a hermaphrodite five hundred 

 times in succession— or migrate during a similar pe- 

 riod into Ihe body of a blind and deaf beggar and 

 endure every loathsome disease, and thereafter he 

 precipitated to hell and snfler crucifixion at the bauds 

 of PJireea Yom, [Yama] a king of that region." 



On other occasions, that portion of the Siamese Bali ri- 

 tual is read to and repeated by the witness, which begins 

 with: " Sah h y h v k a m v vh a mop << k y h vtrce seek h a 

 rotate? 1 &c. which corresponds with the Sanscrit I 

 believe, word for word ; only some of the consonants 

 are interchangeable, as, k for g, ch for jb; &C.&C.&C. 

 Then came the phra Barramat, containing the num- 

 ber of 2 1,000 chapters of Bali theology and theogony, 

 cam aliis multis. Thereafter appears a long string 

 ofdcv'atas — Phra Ecu and Phra PJirom (India 

 and Brahma) taking the lead. 



The Chankoo, or Siamese priests, are exempted 

 from the formality of an oath in their own country. 

 They merely affirm or deny, by a movement of their 

 taraphat or fan of palm leaves. I believe this rule 

 lias not been attended to in our courts of justice. 

 It is very rarely indeed that a priest ever appears 

 in one. lie should so act as to have no cause origi- 

 nating in himself to appear, for lie ought to estrange 

 himself from all wordly affairs. But were Ihe rule 

 adhered to, these priests would he placed in the same 

 apparent relative position as the Quakers, with per- 

 haps this essential drawback, that the yellow chewon, 

 or mantle, of the former would not be .so safe a gua- 

 ranty fur their integrity, as is the sober garb of the lat- 

 ter. They are an incubus on the Siamese nation from 

 their preposterous numbers. One of the surest ways 

 of rendering men vicious is to assume tliem to l>e so, 

 and to treat them with suspicion. But if the natives 

 of Siam are yet influenced by their codes of law, 



