THE SOIt, 
341 
I 
managing affairs, set up a King to reign over them. The Mfe p,ha- 
sop having felt thereby propitiated, permitted the grain to fructify as 
before. “ When men become wicked scarcity prevails, and when 
« their wickedness becomes excessive, the whole grain of the coun- 
e( try resolves itself into its first principle, and ascends to the heavens 
<• in a spiritual shape.” It may therefore be compaied in some mea¬ 
sure to Ceres. 
The Malays are impressed with the same belief, supposing that 
their granaries are often emptied owing to the flight of the rice 
grain, termed by them the te paddie terbmig ” or “ Samangat pad- 
die .” 
The Siamese may be considered as very slovenly farmers, a cir¬ 
cumstance attributable to the luxuriant liberality of nature, and to 
the little value attached to land. Women materially assist in the la¬ 
bours of the field, but not more so on the average of a year than the 
women of Great Britain. Except near their larger towns, the far¬ 
mers seem to have adopted the indolent methods of culture prevalent 
in Pegu, and on the Tennasserim Coast, and sometimes used by the Ma¬ 
lays. They collect large herds of buffaloes, and when the rainy sea¬ 
son has commenced, they drive them about in the flooded fields until 
the soil has been sufficiently worked up and weeds destroyed. A 
coarse and large wooden rake, or in its place a bunch of thorny 
shrubs, is drawn over the surface, and the seed is then sown broad¬ 
cast. By this last process they reap only about one-fourth of the 
quantity which would be obtained by the transplanting system, or in 
other words the produce of an acre sown broadcast may average 110 
tjianan , while that on which grain has been planted, will yield four 
hundred tjianan* and when rice is at a medium price, about 31|- 
gallons may be bought for the value nearly of three shillings. 
The annual inundation of the Siam river, or Me nam assists the 
labours of the husbandman, by destroying the weeds and nourishing 
the crops by the mud it deposits in its course. The seed is sown 
and the crop reaped betwixt the 7th or middle of the 8th (July), 
* A tjlmnan is equal to abeut 1 \ gallon. 
