A HASTY GLANCE AT BANGKOK
While the carpenter and the second officer were busy making a place for
the large map of Cochin China, the returned hunters from Borneo were
invited to the cabin of the commander. They were pleased with the change
of scene from the mud and water of their week in Borneo; though they
felt that they would like to go there for another week--not more than
that--at another time.
"After lunch you will visit the city of Bangkok, and spend the afternoon
there; for you ought to see the place, as you are here," said Captain
Ringgold. "It is a large city."
"How large is it, Captain?" asked Louis.
"That is more than anybody in Siam, or anywhere else, can tell you. In
these Oriental countries, when they count the people, they do not
include the females in the enumeration, so that we get but half an idea
of the whole number. Chambers puts it at 300,000; the 'Year Book' does
not give it at all; Bradshaw puts it down at 500,000; Lippincott the
same. Probably the larger number is the nearer correct, and the
authorities quoted are issued the present year."
"I see no end of Chinamen flitting about the river," said Scott.
"They compose about one-half of the population of the city; and most of
the trade of the place is in their hands, as you have found it to be,
though to a less degree, in other cities you have visited in the East.
The Celestials are taxed three dollars when they come into Siam, and pay
the same amount every three years. But there is the lunch-bell. If you
have no objection, Professor Giroud will go on shore with you."
"I should be delighted to have his company," replied Louis; and the
others said the same thing.
The conversation at the table related more to Borneo than to anything
else, and the Nimrods had all the questions they could answer put to
them; and some of the ladies wished they had remained there a few days.
"If I had supposed the Nimrods would stay there only a week, I should
have been quite willing to remain at Sarawak that time," added the
commander.
"We fixed the time at three weeks because we thought it would take you
all of that time to see Siam and Cambodia, and get back to Sarawak,"
replied Scott.
"I think it would have been delightful to sail on those rivers, and see
the uncivilized people of the island," added Mrs. Belgrave. "But I
suppose we should have been in the way of the hunters."
"Not at all, madam," answered Scott. "We had a sampan, in which we
could have done our hunting, while you were examining the long-houses
and the head-houses. I don't know but that we should have wished to
remain the whole three weeks if the ladies had been with us."
"Gallant Captain Scott!" exclaimed the lady.
"We did not go up the Rajang River as we intended, and we should have
done that if you had been with us. I am very sure the Dyak ladies would
have been delighted to see you, more than you would have been to see
them," replied Scott.
"The steam-yacht must have been very delightful on the rivers and lakes;
but the crocodiles, the snakes, and the savage orang-outangs would not
have been pleasant to us."
"But with eleven Winchester repeating-rifles ready for use, you would
have had nothing to fear."
Captain Ringgold rose from the table; and this terminated the
conversation, and the party went on deck.
"Captain Ringgold said you had offered to go on shore with us, Professor
Giroud," said Louis, as he joined the instructor. "We shall be delighted
with your company."
"Thank you, Mr. Belgrave. I have been on shore every day, with or
without the party, and have learned something about Bangkok. I may be of
service to you," replied the professor.
"I am sure you will," said Scott.
The first cutter was in the water when they reached the gangway, with
the crew in their places. They went on board, and the bowman shoved off.
Stoody, the coxswain, gave the orders, and the boat was immediately
under way. She was steered towards the shore till she came abreast of
the various craft moored there, and then headed up the river.
"Where are you going, Stoody?" asked Scott.
"Captain Ringgold told me to take the party up the river, to show them
the boats and houses," replied the coxswain.
"That is a good idea, Mr. Scott," added the professor.
"The houses here are all afloat," said Morris. "They are three or four
deep."
"Everybody is not allowed to build his house on shore; for that is a
royal privilege, doled out to a few of the highest nobility," said the
professor. "I suppose there is not room enough in the city for much
besides the palaces and the temples, but beyond its limits we shall find
plenty of land-houses."
"But I should think these floating houses would be smashed to pieces in
a heavy blow; and I see there are plenty of steamers and tugboats in the
river, which might bump against them," Morris objected.
"You see that the middle of the river is kept open, though it is very
crooked; and these things regulate themselves."
"These houses are no better than card-boxes. They seem to be built of
bamboos, with wicker-work and plants. Each of them has a veranda in
front, which is a nice place to sit and read, with a kind of ell at each
end. I think I should like to live in one of them for a week or two,"
continued Morris.
"You would not like it," said Achang, who had come with them to act as
interpreter.
"This is a walled town, with six miles of fortifications around it."
"A little less than two miles across it; and we shall not have to take
any very long walks, for I have read that carriages are seldom seen
except among the palaces, and probably belong to the nobility," said
Louis; "but we are good for six miles this afternoon."
"The river is the great thoroughfare for business and for pleasure. It
is covered with boats of all sorts and kinds. The walls of the city are
from fifteen to thirty feet high, and twelve feet thick; but I suppose
the heavy guns of modern times could knock them down in a very short
time," added the professor.
"What is that opening into the river?" asked Felix, who had kept his
tongue very quiet so far.
"That is a canal," replied Achang, as the professor did not reply. "I
have been here three times, and once I went up that canal. There are
only a few good streets in the city, and inside business is carried on
by the canals."
"As Paris is to France, and Paris is France, so Bangkok is Siam; and
that is the reason why the commander goes no farther. Now we have come
to the wall, and you can see the outside town."
"The houses here are all on stilts, as in Sumatra and Borneo," observed
Scott. "Some of them are built over the water."
"It is said here that the city suffered terribly from the ravages of
cholera; and when the king found out that the disease was caused by the
bad drainage of the houses, he ordered his people to build on the river,
where the drainage would dispose of itself," said Professor Giroud.
"This story was told me by a Frenchman here, but I cannot vouch for the
truth of the statement."
"Can you tell me, Achang, why they build their houses on piles in this
country?" asked Morris.
"Because they have waterations here."
"Have what?" demanded the questioner, while all the party laughed except
the Bornean. "I never heard of waterations before."
"When the water rise up high," Achang explained.
"Inundations, you mean."
"Yes; thunderations," added Achang.
"Inundations!" roared the Bornean's preceptor.
"That's what I say; and that's the first reason. The second is that
there are many snakes"--
"Then, it's the place for me!" exclaimed Felix.
"Many snakes and wild beasts; the stilts help to keep them out of the
house."
"But most snakes can climb trees," Scott objected.
"Fixed so that snake can't get off the post into house," the Bornean
explained.
"The little corn-houses in New England and other places are protected in
the same way from rats. Four posts are set up for it to rest on, with a
flat stone, or sometimes a large tin pan turned upside down, placed on
the post. When the building is erected with the corners on the large,
flat stone or the pans, rats or other rodents cannot get over these
obstructions, and the corn is safe from them," continued Louis,
illustrating his subject with a pencil for the post, and his hand for
the stone or the pan.
Scott, who was an officer of the ship, ordered Stoody to take the party
to the landing nearest to the Temple of Wat Chang, as the professor
requested.
"The religion of Siam, like that of Burma, is Buddhist, in whose honor
most of the temples whose spires you can see are erected," said the
professor, as he pointed to several of them.
"We don't care to see them in detail, even if we had the time,"
suggested Louis. "I know they are magnificent pieces of architecture,
and wonderful to behold; but we have had about enough of that sort of
thing."
The party landed, and walked to the temple. It looked like an
exaggerated bell, the spire being the handle, and the lower portion
looking like an enormous flight of circular stairs for the roof. It was
over two hundred feet high. Attached to it in the rear was a structure
with a pitched roof. They bought photographs of it at the stand of a
native who spoke a little French. At this point Achang procured a guide
who spoke French, and he conducted them to the Temple of the Sleeping
Idol.
"It is not much of a temple compared with the one we have just visited,"
said the professor. "We must go into it."
They entered, conducted by the guide. The building looked like three
pitched-roof structures set together, the middle one into the largest at
the bottom, and the smallest into the middle one. It contains an
enormous figure of Buddha, one hundred and sixty feet long, which about
fills the interior of the temple. It is constructed of brick, plastered
and then gilded, so that it looks like a golden statue in a reclining
posture. The feet are sixteen feet long, and the arms six feet in
diameter.
The party looked in at another temple, which contains a brass statue of
Buddha fifty feet high, with other smaller statues, and a variety of
objects that were unintelligible to the visitors. Various other temples
were examined hastily on the way to the royal palace, but they were only
a repetition of what they had often seen before.
The palace was a magnificent building, or series of buildings, for a
half-civilized country. The tourists were permitted to enter at the
gate, though the guide was excluded. They saw a squad of the royal
guards who were drilling on the pavement, and they regarded them with
great interest. They wore a Zouave uniform, though with a short
frock-coat buttoned to the chin, with round caps in cylindrical form,
and visors. They were armed with muskets, and commanded by native
officers.
"This palace is a big thing," said the professor, "and is a mile in
circumference, surrounded by walls."
It contained, besides the palace of the king, the public offices,
temples, a theatre, barracks for several thousand soldiers, and
apartments for three thousand women, six hundred of whom are the wives
of the king. But what interested them more than most of the sights was
the famous white elephant. He is said to be of equal rank with the king,
and is treated with all possible deference and respect. He has a
palatial stable; and being a king, he lives like one. His servants and
attendants are all priests. But he is not a pleasant sprig of royalty,
and the visitors were warned not to go too near him.
But it was time to return to the ship, and they found the boat in the
canal which Achang had indicated. At dinner the conversation was
concerning the city, and the party mentioned many things the Nimrods had
not seen. On Tuesday morning the ship sailed on her voyage to Saigon.