335 
PART I. 
CIVIL LAW. 
Chapter I. 
ON PROPERTY. 
The Soil. 
The Siamese are rather an agricultural than a trading people, ami 
they are not now pastoral, although it is probable their ancestors 
were, before descending from the north. The great body ot the peo¬ 
ple, spread over the country, live chiefly by cultivating the soil—- 
and the population of their towns, by petty trades and traffick, chiefly 
in agricultural produce. For although Bankok, the capital, exhibits 
a busy commercial scene, yet it is to the Chinese that the impulse 
must be attributed. The property of the former mainly consists in 
rice-grouuds and cattle; that of the latter in their floating-rafts, shops 
and stock in trade. There is a richer class composed of the owners 
of gardens and orchards. These live more indolently than their 
neighbours, when their plantations are in bearing. The wife and 
daughters of a Chau Toan, or owner of an orchard, carry the produce 
to market in baskets slung over their shoulders. If he be rich, the 
latter are frequently allowed to retain the profits to form separate 
funds for future exigencies. 
Rank is known from the number of naa or fields over which the 
individual possesses a nominal superiority, for it is doubtful if many 
of the public officers have actually sucli landed property. 
The soil of Siam is fertile ; but the best cultivated districts lie in 
the immediate vicinity of navigable rivers; while all beyond these dis¬ 
tricts may not on the average exceed, by the accounts of the natives, 
a mile, although taken separately a few may be found from three to 
five mUes. It may be said of all the Ultra Gangetic countries that 
they have fruitful soils; but that the ease with which the various 
tribes which people them can acquire the means of subsistence, must 
operate against their being fully cultivatedj while it may be consider- 
