_CHOLERA-TIMES IN BANGKOK._
Those indeed were dreadful days in the summer of 1849, when, after
being free from it thirty years, cholera again broke out in Siam; when
in less than a fortnight more than twenty thousand people perished in
the one city of Bangkok; when, go where you would in the streets, you
would meet men carrying their dead slung from a bamboo borne on the
shoulders of two of them; when hundreds of corpses were thrown into
the river and heaps on heaps were piled up like logs and burned to get
them out of the way.
I need not say that the Siamese were very much frightened when this
dreadful disease broke out among them. They saw their friends and
neighbors sicken in an hour and dying on their right hand and left in
almost every house, and each one feared it might be his turn next. But
where did they look for help? Did the king proclaim a fast-day, think
you? and the people repent of their many sins and pray to God to have
mercy on them? Alas! God was not in the thoughts of this people at
all. Their religion teaches them there is no God――no Creator who made
the world: the world made itself, they say; it always was. The god
they do worship, Buddha, whose images are in every temple, was nothing
but a mere man like themselves, and, now he has left the world, knows
nothing, cares nothing, about it, or indeed about aught else.
The common notion about the pestilence was that an army of wicked
spirits had come invisibly to carry off mankind to make them their
servants in the unseen world. Oh, how anxious they were to make these
spirits of the air their friends! So the people made various offerings
in order to conciliate the good-will of these spirits of the air.
It was a common practice in those days to form a little square tray
from pieces of the plantain tree, and, placing the offerings
thereupon, leave them by the side of the street, where the spirits
would find them, or else, placing them on the water, let them float
down the stream. The river and land were full of them.
Coming home one night, I stumbled over one right in my path, and,
having a lantern, stopped to examine it. On the rude tray, which was
about a foot square, were strewed rice, some coarse salt tied up in a
little rag, some fresh flowers, betel-nut, sliced plantain, the end of
a torch, and two rough images of clay representing a man and woman,
each with a dirty shred of cloth about it. The object in making images
was that the spirits might accept them for their servants instead of
the persons who offered them. The invisible spirits never carried off
any of these dainty gifts, but I have seen sensible-looking dogs
helping themselves freely to the rice and whatever else was eatable.
Some would take great pains to make perfect little models of a Chinese
junk, painted gayly, and fit them out with little red and white
banners, wax tapers, fruit and flowers. These boats contained as
passengers clay images of men, women and children, and at dusk the
tapers were lighted and the little vessels launched on the river as an
offering to the spirits, to be borne away on the tide. Many charms
were also used to keep off the evil spirits that bring disease. They
consisted of strips of paper with various squares and marks upon them,
sewed up in bits of red cloth or leather of a three-cornered shape.
But by far the most common practice as a preventive of cholera was
wearing a few strands of cotton yarn about the neck or wrist. Go where
you would, in the market or along the river-side, nearly all women and
children wore this white string. I have been in the houses of noblemen
where one had just been taken sick, when all the women of the family
were busy dividing a hank of cotton yarn into portions and tying them
around the wrists or necks of themselves and their children with as
much earnestness as though their lives depended on it. Often in trying
to feel for the pulse of some poor dying creature have I pushed this
cotton thread away to get at the wrist.
Many houses were entirely encircled by a long cotton cord, with bits
of written paper fastened to it here and there. The outer
palace-walls, more than a mile in circumference, were thus girt
around, the cord looped up from the battlements every few rods. But
Death crossed the enchanted line, if the spirits did not, and hundreds
of the king’s large household were swept away.
The pestilence had not been prevailing long before the Chinese in the
city, at their houses on land and at every floating house for miles
along the river and canals, had a tall bamboo pole put up, with cords
attached by which a little lantern could be raised to the top. After
dark, when all these were lighted, they gave the river a beautiful
appearance. This foolish waste of oil was kept up all night for weeks
and months. Besides this, the Chinese tried to get the favor of their
gods by the firing of crackers, boat-races and processions on land and
water.
There were other spirits, besides those that they supposed had caused
the pestilence, that the Siamese treated with great respect during
those days. Before or near almost every house, raised on a single pole
about as high as one’s head, stood a little wooden house, having one
small room opening on a little porch. In this porch and room you would
always find a quantity of offerings――such curious ones, too, that you
would be more sure than ever it was a doll’s play-house, yet the
grown-up members of the family had built them to secure the good-will
of the spirit guarding the spot occupied by their dwelling.
A piece of board shaped something like the head of a spear, slips of
cloth covered with written characters, little clay images of
elephants, horses, men and women, rice, betel-nut, tobacco and
flowers,――these would be offered, in addition to the wax tapers kept
burning and food set out, if any of the family were sick.
The worshiping of these spirits is a kind of superstition that appears
to have been handed down by the forefathers of the Siamese from the
ancient times before the Buddhist religion, which throws no light upon
it, was introduced into their country. As the people believe that
these spirits can protect them from sickness during cholera-time, the
offering-houses are well supplied, and the little sprites (had there
been any) would not have lacked tobacco, betel, food and clothing, or
clay horses to ride.
The temples of the idols and the priests were not forgotten in those
days. The preaching-places were filled with hearers, presents were
made in abundance to the priests and there was much bowing to idols.
One great man was sure that he could not die of cholera because he had
gained so much merit by paying the expenses of making a number of new
priests――some three or four hundred _ticals_; but he too was taken
away by the fatal disease. Priests were in demand also to chant
prayers over the dying, that they might be happy in the next life. I
was much affected by seeing a poor mother trying to comfort her son, a
young man stricken down by disease and fast sinking. She told him to
think of the favor of his god, and then, putting his hands together
with the palms touching, as he was too far gone to raise them himself,
lifted them for him above his head, as is done in the worship of
Buddha. And so this life went out, as thousands upon thousands have
done since, in blind groping after its god, and this mother was left,
as many, many mothers in that land have been left, without one ray of
hope or light beyond the borderland which the spirit of her dear one
had passed.