386 
SLAVERY, 
Any one but a priest may be reduced to slavery, he being presup¬ 
posed to have no cause for incurring debt; and it being well known 
that every thing given to him is looked on as charity. 
Slavery is caused by a failure in payment of debt, and by a selling 
-of personal service, which last is always for an unlimited time. The 
seller is liable for the expence attending the writing out of the agree¬ 
ment. The condition of slave debtor may be considered as resting on 
contract, since the person so disposing of his person may free him¬ 
self by payment of the original sum for which he bound himself. 
But the improvidence which leads to servitude, and is afterwards 
betrayed in the general conduct of this class of people, joined to the 
arts by which their masters weave by degrees around them toils 
framed of gifts and extra luxuries, render it next to impossible, in 
most cases, that they should be ever able to effect their manumission. 
Vagrants and persons of the lower rank, and who have avoided re¬ 
ceiving the impression upon their arms of the King’s Seal, can be made 
slaves by any officer of Government, who may apprehend them, and 
are available for the service of government. These classes are term¬ 
ed Lek, That and Lek Som, terms also applied to hereditary slaves* 
Priests cannot be enslaved, as before noticed, nor can .a slave be¬ 
come a Priest unless he be manumitted for a limited period, or en¬ 
tirely. Those convicted of man-stealing are sentenced to perpetual 
slavery, and to provide grass for the King’s elephant. Slaves con¬ 
stitute frequently the most valuable part of the property of a Siam¬ 
ese. Their labor is to him always available in lieu of maintenance, 
clothes, and lodging, and when he is not in immediate want of their ser¬ 
vices, they must support themselves [like Malayan slave debtors,] 
paying a small yearly sum to their master. Contracts are made in 
writing. 
Slaves whether reduced to slavery by fate of war, or necessity, or 
contract, are the property of their masters. 
The master possesses the power of inflicting corporal punishment 
on a slave for an offence; but if with over severity, he is liable to be 
fined on the complaint of the slave. 
Slaves’of every class, excepting that consisting of those who have 
