172 
SIAM. 
land, of another named Patapahan, which boasts also of 10 
to 20 tons reach in two days. This is a great mart of trade 
•with the interior, and here its merchants resort with their 
gold. Pakanbharu, the limit of Mr. Lynch’s voyage, is 
much lower down, and the above-mentioned places are con¬ 
sequently not noticed by him. The shores are fiat on both 
sides, to a considerable distance up the country, and the 
whole of the soil is probably alluvial. According to Mr. 
Lynch, ship-timber of any dimensions or shape may be pro¬ 
cured and loaded on its shores. 
SIAK, a town and district of Sumatra, extending about 
450 miles along the north-east coast. The trade is consider¬ 
able, and is carried on in vessels from the coast of Coroman¬ 
del, which supply cargoes of piece goods, and also raw silk, 
opium, and other articles, which they provide at Pinang or 
Malacca ; in return for which they receive gold, wax, sago, 
salted fish and fish-roes, elephants’ teeth, gambir, camphor, 
rattans and other canes. The maritime power of the king¬ 
dom of Siak has always been considerable, and in the his¬ 
tory of the Malayan states, we repeatedly read of expeditions 
fitted out from thence, making attacks upon Johor, Malacca, 
and various other places on the two coasts of the peninsula. 
Most of the neighbouring states (or rivers) on the eastern 
coast of Sumatra, from Langat to Jambi, are said to have 
been brought in modern times under its subjection. Little 
information was procured relative to the town. In 1808, it 
was governed by the brother of the rajah who ruled over the 
country. 
SIAL, a small island, forming a harbour in the Red Sea, 
near the coast of Egypt. Lat. 24. 30. N. long. 35. 2. E. 
SIALAGOGUES, in Medicine, from criaXo?, saliva, and 
ay a, I excite, comprehend all such medicines as increase the 
flow of saliva. 
SIALISMUS, formed from criaXov, saliva, a word used 
by the ancients to express a discharge of saliva, brought on 
by the holding hot things in the mouth ; and by us for a sali¬ 
vation by mercury. 
SIALO, a town on the east coast of the island of Sibu. 
Lat. 9. 58. N. long. 123. 30. E. 
SIALOCHI, a term used by the ancients to express such 
persons as had a plentiful discharge of saliva, by whatever 
means. Hippocrates uses it for a person having a quinsey, 
who discharges a very large quantity of saliva. Others ex¬ 
press by it persons, whose mouths naturally abound with a 
bitter saliva,; and others, such persons as, from having a 
very large tongue, spit into people’s faces while talkiug with 
them. 
SIAM, a country of Asia, the name of which is of uncer¬ 
tain origin, but probably derived from the Portuguese, in 
whose orthography Siam and Siao are the same; so that 
Sian, or Siang, might be preferable, as Loubere has suggested, 
to Siam; and the Portuguese writers in Latin call the natives 
“ Siones.” The Siamese style themselves “ Tai,” or freemen, 
and their country “ Meuang Tai,” or the kingdom of freemen. 
The Portuguese might possibly derive the name Siam from 
intercourse with the Peguese. “ Shan,” however, is the ori¬ 
ental term. Before the recent extension and encroachments 
of the Birman empire, the rich and flourishing monarchy of 
Siam was regarded as the chief state of exterior India ; but 
some of its limits are not now easily ascertained. On the 
west of the Malayan peninsula some few possessions may re¬ 
main to the south of Tanaserim ; and on the eastern side of 
that Chersonese, Ligor may mark the boundary. On the 
west, a chain of mountains divides Siam, as formerly, from 
Pegu; but the northern province of Yunshan seems to belong 
to the Birmans; who extended their territory, in this part, to 
the river Maykang; and the limits may perhaps (says Pin¬ 
kerton) be a small ridge running east and west above the river 
Anan. To the south and east the ancient boundaries are fixed; 
the ocean, and a chain of mountains, dividing Siam from 
Laos and Cambodia : so that, according to the ancient de¬ 
scription of this kingdom, it may be considered as a large 
vale between two ridges of mountains. The northern boun¬ 
daries, as defined by Loubere, evince that Siam has lost little 
in that quarter. His city Chiamai is probably Zamee, fifteen 
days’ journey beyond the Siamese frontier. The northern 
limit is therefore at 19°, and not at 22°, as he erroneously 
states its latitude; and therefore the length of the kingdom 
may be about 10°, or near 700 British miles, and about one- 
half of this not above 70 miles in medial breadth. Or its 
admeasurement may be more accurately stated from about 11° 
of north lat. to 19°; being in length of about 550 British 
miles, by a breadth of 240. 
This kingdom is divided into ten provinces, viz., Supthia, 
Bancok, Porcelon, Pipli, Camphine, Rappri, Tanaserim, 
Ligor, Cambouri, and Concacema, each of which has its 
goveuor respectively. Of these provinces we have the fol¬ 
lowing short notices. Bancok is situated above seven leagues 
from the sea, and in the Siamese (language is called Fou. 
Its environs are embellished with delicious gardens that fur¬ 
nish the natives with fruit, which is their chief nourishment. 
Tanaserim is a province abounding in rice and fruit trees; a 
it has a safe and commodious harbour, admitting vessels of 
all nations ; and in this province the people find more ample 
resources of subsistence than in the other parts of the mo¬ 
narchy. Cambouri, on the frontiers of Pegu, carries on a 
considerable trade in the commodity called by the French 
eagle-wood, elephants’-teeth, and horns of the rhinoceros. 
The finest varnish is also procured from this province. Ligor 
affords a kind of tin, called by the French calain, the calain 
of the Portuguese. Porcelon was formerly a distinct sove¬ 
reignty, and produces dyeing woods and precious gums. 
The capital city of the kingdom lias been called Siam, by 
the ignorance of Portuguese navigators. In the native lan¬ 
guage the name approaches to the European enunciation of 
Yuthia, or Juthia; it is situated on an isle formed by the river 
Meinam or Menan. Its walls in Loubere’s time were exten¬ 
sive ; but not above a sixth part was inhabited. Its condition 
since it was delivered from the Birman conquest in 1766, has 
not been described. The royal palace was on the north, and 
on the east there was a causeway, affording the only free pas¬ 
sage by land. Distinct quarters were inhabited by the Chi¬ 
nese, Japanese, Cochin-chinese, Portuguese, and Malays. 
The temples, pyramids, and royal palaces seem to have been 
much inferior in all respects to those of the Birmans. 
The other chief towns in the Siamese dominions are 
Bancok, at the mouth of the Meinam, Ogmo, and others on 
the eastern coast of the gulph of Siam. On the western, 
D’Anville marks Cham, Cini, and others as far as Ligor. 
Along the banks of the great river at Louvo and Porselouc, 
with others of inferior note. Louvo was a royal residence 
for a considerable part of the year. In general, these towns 
were only collections of hovels, sometimes surrounded with a 
wooden stockade, and rarely with a brick wall. In the south¬ 
west, Tanaserim and Merghi may be regarded as possessions 
belonging to the Birman empire, and the remaining fragment 
of the Siamese territory in that quarter presents no conside¬ 
rable town; though villages appear in Junkseylon and some 
of the other isles. Kaempfer, in an account of his voyage to 
Japan in 1690, describes two remarkable edifices near the 
capital; the first is a famous pyramid, and called Puka Thon, 
erected for the commemoration of a victory obtained, on the 
spot where it stands to the north-west, over the king of Pegu. 
This magnificent structure is enclosed by a wall, and is 
120 feet high, varying in form at its different stages, and ter¬ 
minating in a slender spire; the second edifice consists of two 
squares to the east of the city, surrounded by a wall, and se¬ 
parated by a channel of the river. These squares contain 
many temples, couvents, chapels, and columns, particularly 
the temple of Berklam, with a grand gate ornamented with 
statues and various carvings; the other decorations appear 
by Ksempfer’s account to have been exquisite. 
Our principal sources of information with regard to Siam 
are the publications of La Loubere, who went as ambassador 
from Louis XIV. to the king of Siam, and those of the French 
missionaries, of which, that from the papers of the bishop of 
Tabraca by Turpin, in 1771, is the most important. Accord¬ 
ing to the account of the latter writer, the people of Laos and 
Pegu 
