The Romance of the Harem

-^<^^^^^^fe^/ THE IDOL OF BUDDHA THE ROMANCE OF THE HAREM BY MES. ANNA H. LEONOWENS, AUTHOR OF " THE ENGLISH GOVERNESS AT THE SIAMESE COURT. Illustrate*). THE EMERALD IDOL. BOSTON: JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY, Late Ticknor & Fields, axd Fields, Osgood, & Co. 1873. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, BY JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO., in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. University Press: Welch, Bigelow, & Co., Cambridge. PREFACE 91 rpRUTH is often stranger than fiction/' but so J- strange will some of the occurrences related in the following pages appear to Western readers, that I deem it necessary to state that they are also true. Most of the stories, incidents, and characters are known to me per- sonally to be real, while of such narratives as I received from others I can say that " I tell the tale as it was told to me," and written down by me at the time. In some cases I have substituted fictitious for real names, in order to shield from what might be undesired publicity persons still living. I gladly acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. Francis George Shaw for valuable advice and aid in the prep- aration of this work for the press, and to Miss Sarah Bradley, daughter of the Eev. Dr. Bradley of Bangkok, for her kindness in providing me with photographs, otherwise unattainable, for some of the illustrations. New Brighton, Staten Island, September 13, 1872. DEDICATION. To the noble and devoted women whom I learned to know, to esteem, and to love in the city of the Nang Harm, I dedicate the following pages, containing a record of some of the events con- nected with their lives and sufferings. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. I. The Idol of Buddha .... Frontispiece. II. The Emerald Idol III. A Siamese Slave-Girl .... IV. A Siamese Flower-Girl .... V. Guard of Amazons VI. Palm-Trees near the New Road, Bangkok VII. A Young Siamese Nobleman . VIII. Smayatee IX. A Royal Actress X. RuNGEAH, THE CAMBODIAN PROSELYTE . XI. Ladies of the Royal Harem at Dinner XII. A Laotian XIII. Crenellated Towers of the Inner City XIV. An Amazon of the Royal Body Guard . XV. Queen of Siam XVI. King of Siam XVII. Temple and Ruins of Kampoot CONTENTS. Chapter Paob I. "Huang Thai," or the Kingdom op the Freb . 1 II. Tuptim : A Tragedy of the Harem . 14 III. Tuptim's Trial 25 IV. The King changes his Mind 35 V. Slavery in the Grand Royal Palace of the "Invincible and Beautiful Archangel" ...... 42 VI. Khoon Thow App, the Chief of the Female Judges . 58 VII. The Rajpoot and his Daughter 65 VIII. Among the Hills of Orissa 72 IX. The Rebel Duke P'haya Si P'hifoor .... 77 X. The Grandson of Somdetch Ong Yai, and his Tutor P'hra Chow Saduman 84 XI. The Heroism of a Child 102 XII. The Interior of the Duke Chow P'haya Mandtree's Harem 107 XIII. A Night of Mysteries 112 XIV. " Weeping may endure for a Night, but Joy cometh in the Morning" 118 XV. The Favorite of the Harem 122 XVI. May-Pea h, the Ladtian Slave-Girl 145 XVII. An Accidental Discovery of the Whereabouts of the Princess Sunartha VisMrrA 151 XVIII. Lady Thieng, the Head Wife and Superintendent of the Royal Cuisine 155 Vlll CONTENTS. XIX. The Princess Sunartha Vismita 160 XX. Pak Laut, or the Mouth of the Ocean . .165 XXI. Narrative of the Princess of Chiengmai . 171 XXII. "Bijrepuree," or the Diamond City .... 175 XXIII. The Deaf and Dumb Changeling ..... 180 XXIV. Witchcraft in Siam in Eighteen Hundred and Sixty- Six, COMPARED WITH WITCHCRAFT IN ENGLAND IN SEV- ENTEEN Hundred and Sixteen 184 XXV. Trial for Witchcraft 188 XXVI. The Christian Village of Tams£ng, or of Thomas the Saint 202 XXVII. Nang Rungeah, the Cambodian Proselyte . 213 XXVIII. Ad ogni Uccello suo Nido e bello, — "To every Bird its own Nest is charming" 221 XXIX. Stray Leaves from the Royal School-Room Table 237 XXX. The Siamese System of Slavery 257 XXXI. The Royal Proclamations 264 A Legend of the Gold and Sllver Mines of Siam . 271 ROMANCE OF THE HAREM. CHAPTER I. "MUANG THAI," OR THE KINGDOM OF THE FREE. SIAM is called by its people " Muang Thai " (the kingdom of the free). The appellation which we employ is derived from a Malay word scujdm (the brown race), and is never used by the natives themselves ; nor is the country ever so named in the ancient or modern annals of the kingdom. In the opinion of Pickering, the Siamese are of Malay origin. A majority of intelligent Europeans, however, regard the population as mainly Mongolian. Put thero is much more probability that they belong to that power- ful Indo-European race to which Europe owes its civilization, and whose chief branches are the Hindoos, Persians, Greeks, Latins, Kelts, and the Teutonic and Sclavonic tribes. The original site of this race was in Bactria, and the earliest division of the people could not have been later than three or four thousand years before the Chris- tian era. Comparative philology alone enables us to traco the origin of nations of great antiquity. According to the researches of the late king, who was a very studious and learned man, of twelve thousand eight hundred Siamese words, more than five thousand are found to be Sanskrit, or to have their roots in that language, and the rest in tho Indo-European tongues ; to which have been superadded a 2 HOMANCE OF THE HAREM. great number of Chinese and Cambodian terms. He says : " The names of temples, cities, and villages in the kingdom of Siam are derived from three sources, namely, San- skrit, Siamese, and Cambodian. The names which the common people generally use are spoken according to the idiom of the Siamese language, are short and easily pro- nounced ; but the names used in the Court language and in the government documents, which receive the government seals, are almost all of Sanskrit derivation, apt to be long ; and even though the Sanskrit names are given at full length, the people are prone to speak them incor- rectly. Some of our cities and temples have two and even three names, being the ancient and modern names, as they have been used in the Court language or that of the people." As the words common to the Siamese and the Sanskrit languages must have been in use by both peoples before their final separation, we have here a clew to the origin and degree of civilization attained by the former before ^ ^ they emigrated from the parent stock. Q. C Besides the true Siamese, a great variety of races in- habit the Siamese territories. The Siamese themselves trace their genealogy up to the first disciples of the Bud- dha, and commence their records at least five centuries before the Christian era. First, a long succession of dynas- ties, with varying seats of government, figure in their ancient books, in which narrations of the miracles of the Buddhas, and of the intervention of supernatural beings, are frequently introduced. Then come accounts of matrimo- nial alliances between the princes of Siam and the Impe- rial family of China; of embassies to, and wars with, the neighboring countries, interspersed with such relations of prodigies and such marvellous legends as to surpass all possible conception of our less fertile Western imaginations. It is only after the establishment of Ayudia as the capital of Siam, A. D. looO, that history assumes its rightful : " MUAXG THAI," OR THE KINGDOM OF THE FUEE. 3 functions, and the course of events, with the regular succession of sovereigns, is registered with tolerable accuracy. The name of Siani was first heard in Europe — that is, in Portugal — in the year 1511, nine years after Alfonso d'Albuquerque, the great Viceroy of the Indies, had landed on the coast of Malabar with his soldiers, and conquered Goa, which he made the seat of the Portugo- Indian government, and the centre of its Asiatic opera- te nis. After establishing his power in Goa, D'Albuquerque subdued the whole of the Malabar, the island of Ceylon, the Sunda Isles, the peninsula of Malacca, and the beautiful island of Ormuz, at the entrance to the Persian Gulf. It was here that D'Albuquerque is said to have received the ambassadors of the Emperor of Persia, sent to collect the tribute formerly paid to him by the sovereigns of the island, and, instead of the customary gold and silver, to have laid before them iron bullets and a sword, with " This is the coin in which Portugal pays those who de- mand tribute from her." Whether this incident really occurred or not, it is certain that D'Albuquerque made the name of Portugal so feared and respected in the East, that many of the potentates in that region, and among them the kings of Siani and Pegu, sent embassies to him, and sought his alliance and protection. The profitable relations anticipated from this opening were interrupted, however, by the long and bitter war which shortly broke i ut between Siam and Birmah, and the intercourse between the Siamese and Portuguese was not renewed for a long time. As early as the fifteenth century the celebrated German traveller, Mandelslohe, visited Ayudia, the capital of Siam, and called it the Venice of the East, — a title equally appli- cable to the modern capital, Bangkok. The Portuguese explorer, Mendez Pinto, who was in Siam in the sixteenth century, gives a very favorable account of the country, and, in my opinion, deserves more credit for the truth of 4 ROMANCE OF THE HAREM.

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