person speaking, or contempt toward the one addressed. Ráu is in its strictest sense a term of authority, applied as we should use we in the singular, as a monarch in addressing his subjects, &c. Ká means, literally, servant or slave, but is used by all classes in familiar intercourse with those whom they are willing to recognize as equals, and by superiors to inferiors when the former wish to be, or appear, very condescending to the latter. Kà-pà-cháu is literally "the servant of my lord," and is seldom used but in a formal style of writing, or in prayers addressed to the Deity. Chun, de-chun, and kramaum-chún are humble forms of expression, used by servants to their masters, and occasionally by equals, when a very special effort is made to conciliate. Klaupom is used only as the most abject form of address towards masters or rulers. Al-má, and rúp, are used exclusively by priests in addressing the laity,

So of the second person: tàn and cháukà, (thou or you,) are respectful, cháu and tu-wà indicate equality, eng is addressed only to inferiors, meung is strongly expressive of contempt, and so on.

These distinctions in speaking extend also to the names applied to the different parts of the body, to eating, drinking, sleeping, and in fact to everything. Thus, if you wish to speak of the head of an ordinary person, you would use the word hu-ah, but for the head of the king, a priest, or a god, you would have to say see-sà. If a peasant walks out, the act may be expressed by the term durn-pai, but a monarch would si-det. The foot of a common man is a teen, that of the king is called prá-bàt. A servant would kin kàu, (eat dinner,) but the same act, if performed by his lordly master, would be dignified by the more imposing soubriquet of s’wer-epo-chà-nà-à-hán, (the imbibing of sustenance,) &c., &c., &c.

The substitution of one or another of these forms of expression, is often a very nice point of etiquette, especially when taking into consideration the fact that persons in the East, as well as in our own land, not unfrequently hold themselves as entitled to a degree of respect not accorded to them by the community at

large. In addition to this, it is not always pleasant to assert freely your opinion with regard either to yourself or those with whom you mingle, especially where you are almost certain to be understood literally. Then, too, whilst with our Western ideas of propriety, we naturally hesitate to claim for ourselves a rank which we are not quite sure is accorded us by others, yet on the contrary, we dare not abase ourselves in any degree, lest modesty be taken for servility, and we be trampled beneath the feet of those of whom we had expected simply a reciprocation of the courtesy we had shown toward them. In illustration of this, we mention the following as an example:

During the administration of President Jackson, Mr. Roberts was sent out by our government as Minister Plenipotentiary, to negotiate with the Siamese authorities for a new treaty between Siam and the United States. He reached the mouth of the Mánàm river in the United States sloop of war Peacock," Captain Geisinger, in February, 1833. Here they were waited on by the Siamese officers of the port, and as the "Peacock" could not with safety pass the bar at the mouth of the river, two government war boats were dispatched with orders to con vey "His Excellency, the Minister and his suite, to the royal city," where somewhat commodious quarters were assigned them, not far from the residence of the Práh-Klàng, or Minister of Foreign Af fairs.

Besides various presents for the king and higher officers of government, Mr. Roberts was the bearer of an autograph letter from President Jackson to His Siamese Majesty; which letter came very near being rejected as a counterfeit, in consequence of being open, and bearing no "royal seal of state." It was, however, saved from this disastrous fate by the extremely opportune recollection that "the foreign man-of-war, with her big guns and several hundred well-disciplined troops on board," lay just at the mouth of the river, and the shrewd guess that any indignity shown toward the Embassy, might be visited by their brave comrades with rather summary ven

geance, in the form of a discharge of these same "big guns" on the Palace Royal, a sort of forcible salute for which "His Serene Majesty" had no special partiality.

So the document having been duly presented, read, and consulted over by the King and Cabinet assembled in Privy Council, a most elaborated answer was, after considerable delay, prepared and presented to l'Ambassadeur Extraordinaire.

The President, in concluding his letter, had, as usual in such cases, subscribed himself, "Your Majesty's obedient, humble servant, Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, &c., &c., &c."

The Siamese monarch's reply, dictated by himself, and literally translated by one of the royal secretaries, began thus: "The great and Magnificent King, the Lord God Budh, who dwells serenely, and rules over every head in the sacred and great kingdom of Siam, to his obedient, humble slave, Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, greeting and cordial good-will.”

This document was handed to Mr. Roberts in open court, at one of the King's grand levees, and in the presence of the Ambassador's suite as well as the assembled nobility of the royal city. The letter was open, and Mr. Roberts was requested to examine its contents, and state whether the document was appropriately worded, and likely to prove satisfactory to the government whose emissary he was.

A single glance at this arrogantlyworded epistle filled Mr. Roberts with indignation, and tearing it in pieces, he trampled it in the dust, and was hurriedly quitting the Audience Hall, when the simple-hearted old King sent the Prime Minister to entreat his return, and earnestly begged to be informed as to the cause of offence, at the same time reiterating assurances of the most profound respect an cordial good-will toward both the Embassy and the "American King,” as the President is usually styled in Siam.

Mr. Roberts, after much persuasion, was induced to return, but reluctantly consented to resume the conference, in

dignantly assuring the Prime Minister that he would be the bearer of no such insolent epistle as that which had been handed him, wherein the insulting epithet of "slave" had been applied to the Chief Magistrate of a free and independent people; and that as the representative of the United States Government, he could hold no farther intercourse with a monarch, or court, that thus wantonly and grossly insulted the nation whose messenger he was. The King, in all honesty and good faith, assured Mr. Roberts that nothing could be farther from his wish, or intention, than “giving offence to so renowned a personage as the American King, or ill-treating his accredited agent, the Ambassador." Then producing the President's letter from the golden casket that formed the usual receptacle of treaties, communications from foreign courts, &c., he invited Mr. Roberts to examine for himself, and see whether he had not given Mr. Jackson the identical title he claimed for himself, simply wondering that people should be offended at receiving from others the very epithets they annexed to their own names. Quite a burlesque, we should say, on Western etiquette !

Mr. Roberts explained that such things. were done from courtesy merely in conformity to established usage, and were never to be received in their literal sense. The good-natured old monarch smiled pleasantly at this explanation, and summoning his secretary, applied himself once more to the delicate and difficult task of so wording his reply as to bestow "all due honour upon the American King," without in the least compromising his own regal dignity, or omitting any of the requisite number of kingly titles. The second letter began: "The great and magnificent King of the Sacred Empire, to his well-beloved cousin, Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, &c., &c., &c." What the &c.'s implied, was not quite clear to the old King's mind, but they were inserted as a point of honour, and he evidently regarded them as meaning something mysteriously grand and awfully imposing-very untranslatable terms, but, nevertheless very impor

tant to the right wording of this difficult document. This second attempt proved satisfactory to all concerned; and so ended this knotty dispute about titles, and the prolonged conference between these worthy dignitaries!

So very numerous are the titles applied to the King of Siam, that few persons are acquainted with the entire catalogue. Many of these are wholly unintelligible to the unaccustomed ears of foreigners, others are simply absurdly arrogant, whilst there are a few which cannot, without positive blasphemy, be applied to any save the Deity himself. Of the last class are the following: "Lord of Life,” "King of Heaven," "Possessor of every good and Bestower of every Dignity," "Sacred Beauty of the Royal Palace, serene and infallible," "Dread Disposer of Destinies," "The Sacred Dweller on High," "Holder of the Universal Sceptre," "He before whom all should bow," and various others.

One would naturally suppose that any sensible man would disclaim such titles, and that flattery so gross and absurd would prove distasteful alike to user and recipient; but so potent is the influence of habit, and so unbounded is the homage an Oriental monarch is accustomed to receive from his cringing subjects, that no obeisance can be too profound, no servility too abject, no high-sounding title too flattering, or adulation too fulsome for the monarch to receive, or the subject to pay to him who is the undisputed lord of life and property in his domain, and who is at liberty to decapitate, at will, without the formality of either judge or jury, any one who is so unfortunate as to incur the royal displeasure, none daring even to inquire the nature of the of fence.

Some of the ceremonies pertaining to the court festivals of the East are merely carious, but others are tiresome in the extreme, especially to unaccustomed foreigners, and perhaps most of all to the citizens of our Union, with their republican principles, independence of thought and feeling, and easy carelessness of manners. To these, a Siamese court levee is, to say the least, a terrible bore, and never

partaken of by an American citizen with any very good-will.

At these levees, no visitor must enter the drawing-rooms after the King has taken his seat, or retire before he leaves, and consequently if His Majesty happens to be amused, a visitor may be detained there six or eight hours consecutively. No very pleasant pastime any one will say who has tried it.

As "His Serene, Infallible Majesty" chooses to sit à-la-orientale, i. e., on cushions instead of a chair, or sofa, those who visit him must do the same; as to sit differently would seem to imply that the king had not selected the best or most appropriate mode of accommodating himself or his guests. It is also considered highly indecorous to turn the face from, or the feet towards this stately king; and the features of His Supreme Majesty being regarded as too sacred for the gaze of ordinary mortals, none (save the foreigners) are permitted at public levees to sit erect, lest they should by any means obtain a casual glimpse of "the sacred beauty of the royal palace." Crouched thus before the throne, leaning on the elbows, with the hands raised to the forehead, and the feet backwards; this, the only attitude permitted by Siamese courtly etiquette in the presence of the monarch, is, without doubt, the most fatiguing and comfortless that could possibly have been devised, even by fashion, the most uncompromising and merciless of tyrants.

These court festivals are so numerous, and the higher officers of government are kept so long and so frequently prostrated before the throne, that the arms of many of the nobles become as hard and callous to the touch as the soles of the feet among persons accustomed to go barefoot.

The Prime Minister, whose court attendance and duties are more onerous than those of any other noble, assured us, that for thirty years he had spent, on an average, at least ten hours out of every twenty-four, prostrate before the throne of His Siamese Majesty. He said that at first, this was so wearisome, as to deprive him frequently of the ability to

sleep; and that his health had suffered severely in consequence,-but that long habit had rendered that posture easier to him than any other.

At the time I first met him, he must have been full sixty years of age, but he was in the enjoyment of perfect health, and one of the most jovial old gentlemen I have ever known. He was immensely stout, very clumsy in his movements, and the skin of his arms, from the elbow to the wrist, was, from constant leaning on, nearly as callous as the hide of the rhinoceros !

Another inconvenient royal ceremony is the practice the king has of always conversing with his guests through the medium of the Prime Minister. This is merely a matter of State etiquette, for it frequently happens that the parties conversing are quite as near each other as either party to the Minister, yet every question and remark with its reply must be repeated by him,-thus rendering a conversation, that but for this tiresome custom might be spirited and agreeable, irksome and insipid in the last degree, in consequence of this endless repetition and delay. Occasionally, however, His Majesty's curiosity takes the precedence of his fondness for ceremony, and becoming impatient of the restraint of talking and hearing only through the medium of an interpreter, he will launch forth into a vein of lively question or remark, directly with the foreigner or other visitor, and appear greatly to enjoy this more piquant and agreeable converse.

On one occasion, a young American lady, then scarcely sixteen years of age, was invited to attend one of the court levees, where, for the first time, she was presented to His Siamese Majesty. Being somewhat near-sighted, she usually wore glasses, and not dreaming they would become subject of special remark on this occasion, she had not thought it necessary to deprive herself of the comfort derived from their use. The extreme youthfulness of her appearance evidently surprised the king, whilst the girlish freshness of her manners and the use of spectacles were points he was wholly at

a loss to reconcile with each other, as East Indians seldom find it necessary to wear glasses at all, and never till at least fifty years of age.

The surprise of His Serene Majesty at this inexplicable phenomenon rendered him, for the time, entirely oblivious of the usual forms of communicating with visitors, and with a degree of empresse ment that proved, indisputably, that la dies are not the sole monopolists in the article of curiosity,-he hastened to satisfy himself on the point in question.

Rising from his seat, and fixing his gaze intently on his youthful visitor, to the utter neglect of the rest of the party, the old king called out at the top of his voice, "Will the little lady please to come forward at once, that I may see her and speak to her?" Then, without waiting for any reply, and utterly regardless of the blushing reluctance with which his requisition was met on the part of the lady, he continued, "take off your glasses, that I may see your eyes, and come nearer the throne, that I may be permitted to inhale the fragrance of this fair young flower, from which the first pure freshness of the morning dew seems scarcely yet dried up. Why, my little lady of the far West, do you wear glasses? You are not very old, nor are those bright eyes ugly, that you should cover them from view. But perhaps your lord is jealous of their bewitching glances, and wishes to reserve all their depths of loving tenderness to himself. Say, my fair little friend, is it so ?"

As all this was spoken quite audibly, and in the presence of an assembly of not less than ten thousand persons, nearly all of whom were males, includ ing nearly all the principal nobility of the realm, the lady was too sorely embarrassed to attempt any reply, and could only vainly wish that the unfortunate glasses, the innocent cause of her present awkward dilemma, had been left at home.

His curiosity gratified, so far as gazing was concerned, and finding there was little prospect of drawing the young

lady into a conversation in a manner so public, where "the observed of all observers," she felt too painfully conscious of the conspicuous position she was occupying, to admit of either enjoyment on her own part, or any attempt at gratifying her regal host, His Majesty suddenly recollected that he ought to converse with his visitors only through the medium of the Prime Minister, or other interpreter, and concluded that it would not be best, for this time at least, to infringe farther on the established rules of courtly etiquette. The lady was, therefore, permitted to withdraw from this painful ordeal, to a seat among her friends and countrymen, a little to the left of the throne, and thence to reply in whispered tones to the questions of the king, as they were repeated to her by the Prime Minister. Some of these were as follows: "How do you manage to remember the uses of the great number of little articles of which your costume seems to be composed? Do you not sometimes put some of them in the wrong place? or is this casually prevented by their being made and sewed on, each in its appropriate position, by the tailor? Do you take them off at night, or do you sleep in them, and keep them on all the time till they are worn out? Do you not become very much fatigued by going through with this process every day, and would you not prefer the more simple dress of the Siamese, consisting of only two or three pieces? Is not your dress very warm? Are all your friends dead that you all dress in white?"-(white is the mourning colour of the Siamese and Chinese; hence the interrogatory.) "How far is your country from mine? Are there many ladies there? Do they all have white eyes and red hair ?* Tell me what

birds you have. Are the flowers of your country like mine?-are they more beautiful or fragrant than ours? Do the ladies of your country sing like the Siamese? Do they play on instruments? Have you any songs more exquisite than the airs you have heard in this country?" &c., &c., &c.

These questions were at first addressed mainly to the lady above mentioned, but she presently dextrously managed to include her companions, so that after awhile the conversation become general, and was kept up with considerable spirit, till refreshments were brought in, when all His Majesty's attention was taken up in urging the ladies particularly, to partake freely, that he might gratify his curiosity by criticising their movements.

Music, vocal and instrumental, then followed the collation; then a theatrical performance, then jugglery, and the evening wonnd up with a magnificent display of fireworks, such as have already been described under their appropriate head.

The native nobles are always required to take off their shoes before entering the royal presence, and foreign visitors were formerly requested to do the same. But having repeatedly signified their aversion to this troublesome and indecorous ceremony, it is no longer insisted on. I was told that when Mr. Crawford visited Siam, in the year 1822, he complied with the request of the ushers, to leave his shoes in the ante-room. coming out of the audience-chamber, the aforesaid shoes were nowhere to be found. In the absence of their august owner, they had taken leave of absence, retired from service, from the sheer love of mischief, and probably greatly enjoyed the joke of seeing his Excellency l'Ambassadeur perambulating the streets

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