426 
Chapter XVII, 
* 
PRISONS &c. 
The prisons in Siam are of brick or wood and they are dirty and 
pestilential. The Rolls are called four times every night to which 
each prisoner must reply, convicts are driven out to public works. 
The inmates are scantily fed with rice, and supplied with some 
coarse clothes by government. 
The rich supply themselves, if men who have once got into a Siamese 
jail, whatever their former condition may have been, can be so called. 
SLAUGHTERING OF ANIMALS. 
The slaughtering of animals is forbidden by the Buddhist religion, 
but the temporal inhibition is merely intended as a salvo to the con¬ 
sciences of the Thai gourmands ; cattle and other animals are slaugh¬ 
tered for food beyond the town. If they take bestial life away within 
the precincts of the town, castigation of the offender according to the 
Buddhist law for the first two offences, and death for the last is in¬ 
flicted. But it is well known that great laiity of law prevails in Siam 
in these instances. Strangers are not exempted from this regulation, 
but they may kiil poultry &c. in their houses . 
It is well known that about the period of Mr. Crawfurd’s mission 
a commander of an English vessel was beaten and nearly scalped for 
an oversight which infringed this law. From some cause he killed 
a horse which was on board his vessel, and threw it into the river, 
not far from the Palace. But it may be supposed that the act was 
partly construed as an insult to the King. 
In their Bali work Milinda Raja, the degrees of guilt aie whim¬ 
sically enough laid down under the head Ongkjtapana teebata, 
and are contained in the Chapters of Buddhist ordinances relative to 
this subject entitled. 
Papa teebata weeramanee viz., 
1. Pano, reflecting on killing animals. 
2. Pana sanvee, premeditating and determining its death. 
