INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER, 
1331 
uther Travellers and Voyagers, and the Reports of Missions, do not 
furnish us with authentic data from which correct information can be 
drawn applicable to the present day respecting the internal policy of its 
Rulers, and the Laws by which they are governed. But there is still 
much in Louberc’s account of Siamese Law that is yet applicable.* 
Doctor Leyden has described, on the authority of M. De la Lou- 
here, three Codes, under the titles P,kra Tamra, P,hra Tammoji , 
and P,kra Kamtnanoot . But they may with more propriety be 
termed Chapters of Codes. 
The Digests in the Siamese language to which I have had access 
are the following. 
1st. Kofc P,hra Ayakaan. 
This is a popular Digest now in use. 
The first part, as the text purports, was compiled In the year 2,155 
of the era of Boodd.ha [Anno Dom: 1614 ] by order of a King of 
Siam. 
As the Siamese, out of superstitious motives, never pronounce the 
* 
name of their King while alive, and rarely even after his death, his 
titles only, in this instance, are given. 
These are, Som-deteha P,lira eka t,hasong, Eeso-un baromma- 
narot baromma bap,heettra P,hra Chau na yo hoa. 
An addition was made to this Digest three years later headed,— 
Att,hamma-t,ha chak,ka weebata b,hatang. 
The last part of this is therein stated to have been extracted from 
a Digest dated on Monday, in the 6th month of the year Wak (or 
Monkey) 1102 or Anno Dom: 561. 
It concludes with the observation that a copy of it was transmitted 
to the PJiraya Lakjian or Raja of Ligore for his guidance, “ in the 
year of the monkey, in the month Ai, on Wednesday, on the first 
night of the decrease t,ho sole ” “ [two years of the century having 
elapsed.]” The particular century alluded to, is left to conjecture. 
2d, The next authority is a Digest which was procured by me 
at Mergui, a few days only after its capture by the British troops. 
* Loubere confesses that he had no access to Siamese, 
