CHAPTER XIX
A HASTY GLANCE AT BANGKOK
While the carpenter and the second officer were busy making a place forthe large map of Cochin China, the returned hunters from Borneo wereinvited to the cabin of the commander. They were pleased with the changeof scene from the mud and water of their week in Borneo; though theyfelt that they would like to go there for another week--not more thanthat--at another time.
"After lunch you will visit the city of Bangkok, and spend the afternoonthere; for you ought to see the place, as you are here," said CaptainRinggold. "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. Inthese Oriental countries, when they count the people, they do notinclude the females in the enumeration, so that we get but half an ideaof the whole number. Chambers puts it at 300,000; the 'Year Book' doesnot give it at all; Bradshaw puts it down at 500,000; Lippincott thesame. Probably the larger number is the nearer correct, and theauthorities 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 ofthe 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 paythe same amount every three years. But there is the lunch-bell. If youhave no objection, Professor Giroud will go on shore with you."
"I should be delighted to have his company," replied Louis; and theothers said the same thing.
The conversation at the table related more to Borneo than to anythingelse, and the Nimrods had all the questions they could answer put tothem; 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 shouldhave been quite willing to remain at Sarawak that time," added thecommander.
"We fixed the time at three weeks because we thought it would take youall 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 seethe uncivilized people of the island," added Mrs. Belgrave. "But Isuppose we should have been in the way of the hunters."
"Not at all, madam," answered Scott. "We had a sampan, in which wecould have done our hunting, while you were examining the long-housesand the head-houses. I don't know but that we should have wished toremain 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 havedone that if you had been with us. I am very sure the Dyak ladies wouldhave been delighted to see you, more than you would have been to seethem," 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 nothave been pleasant to us."
"But with eleven Winchester repeating-rifles ready for use, you wouldhave had nothing to fear."
Captain Ringgold rose from the table; and this terminated theconversation, and the party went on deck.
"Captain Ringgold said you had offered to go on shore with us, ProfessorGiroud," said Louis, as he joined the instructor. "We shall be delightedwith your company."
"Thank you, Mr. Belgrave. I have been on shore every day, with orwithout the party, and have learned something about Bangkok. I may be ofservice to you," replied the professor.
"I am sure you will," said Scott.
The first cutter was in the water when they reached the gangway, withthe crew in their places. They went on board, and the bowman shoved off.Stoody, the coxswain, gave the orders, and the boat was immediatelyunder way. She was steered towards the shore till she came abreast ofthe 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 themthe 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 fourdeep."
"Everybody is not allowed to build his house on shore; for that is aroyal privilege, doled out to a few of the highest nobility," said theprofessor. "I suppose there is not room enough in the city for muchbesides the palaces and the temples, but beyond its limits we shall findplenty of land-houses."
"But I should think these floating houses would be smashed to pieces ina heavy blow; and I see there are plenty of steamers and tugboats in theriver, which might bump against them," Morris objected.
"You see that the middle of the river is kept open, though it is verycrooked; and these things regulate themselves."
"These houses are no better than card-boxes. They seem to be built ofbamboos, with wicker-work and plants. Each of them has a veranda infront, which is a nice place to sit and read, with a kind of ell at eachend. 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 asinterpreter.
"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 takeany very long walks, for I have read that carriages are seldom seenexcept among the palaces, and probably belong to the nobility," saidLouis; "but we are good for six miles this afternoon."
"The river is the great thoroughfare for business and for pleasure. Itis covered with boats of all sorts and kinds. The walls of the city arefrom fifteen to thirty feet high, and twelve feet thick; but I supposethe heavy guns of modern times could knock them down in a very shorttime," added the professor.
"What is that opening into the river?" asked Felix, who had kept histongue very quiet so far.
"That is a canal," replied Achang, as the professor did not reply. "Ihave been here three times, and once I went up that canal. There areonly a few good streets in the city, and inside business is carried onby the canals."
"As Paris is to France, and Paris is France, so Bangkok is Siam; andthat is the reason why the commander goes no farther. Now we have cometo the wall, and you can see the outside town."
"The houses here are all on stilts, as in Sumatra and Borneo," observedScott. "Some of them are built over the water."
"It is said here that the city suffered terribly from the ravages ofcholera; and when the king found out that the disease was caused by thebad 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 thetruth of the statement."
"Can you tell me, Achang, why they build their houses on piles in thiscountry?" asked Morris.
"Because they have waterations here."
"Have what?" demanded the questioner, while all the party laughed exceptthe 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 thatthere 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 thehouse."
"But most snakes can climb trees," Scott objected.
"Fixed so that snake can't get off the post into house," the Borneanexplained.
"The little corn-houses in New England and other places are protected inthe same way from rats. Four posts are set up for it to rest on, with aflat stone, or sometimes a large tin pan turned upside down, placed onthe post. When the building is erected with the corners on the large,flat stone or the pans, rats or other rodents cannot ge
t over theseobstructions, and the corn is safe from them," continued Louis,illustrating his subject with a pencil for the post, and his hand forthe stone or the pan.
Scott, who was an officer of the ship, ordered Stoody to take the partyto the landing nearest to the Temple of Wat Chang, as the professorrequested.
"The religion of Siam, like that of Burma, is Buddhist, in whose honormost of the temples whose spires you can see are erected," said theprofessor, 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 ofthing."
The party landed, and walked to the temple. It looked like anexaggerated bell, the spire being the handle, and the lower portionlooking like an enormous flight of circular stairs for the roof. It wasover two hundred feet high. Attached to it in the rear was a structurewith a pitched roof. They bought photographs of it at the stand of anative who spoke a little French. At this point Achang procured a guidewho spoke French, and he conducted them to the Temple of the SleepingIdol.
"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 threepitched-roof structures set together, the middle one into the largest atthe bottom, and the smallest into the middle one. It contains anenormous figure of Buddha, one hundred and sixty feet long, which aboutfills the interior of the temple. It is constructed of brick, plasteredand then gilded, so that it looks like a golden statue in a recliningposture. The feet are sixteen feet long, and the arms six feet indiameter.
The party looked in at another temple, which contains a brass statue ofBuddha fifty feet high, with other smaller statues, and a variety ofobjects that were unintelligible to the visitors. Various other templeswere examined hastily on the way to the royal palace, but they were onlya repetition of what they had often seen before.
The palace was a magnificent building, or series of buildings, for ahalf-civilized country. The tourists were permitted to enter at thegate, though the guide was excluded. They saw a squad of the royalguards who were drilling on the pavement, and they regarded them withgreat interest. They wore a Zouave uniform, though with a shortfrock-coat buttoned to the chin, with round caps in cylindrical form,and visors. They were armed with muskets, and commanded by nativeofficers.
"This palace is a big thing," said the professor, "and is a mile incircumference, surrounded by walls."
It contained, besides the palace of the king, the public offices,temples, a theatre, barracks for several thousand soldiers, andapartments for three thousand women, six hundred of whom are the wivesof the king. But what interested them more than most of the sights wasthe 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 apalatial stable; and being a king, he lives like one. His servants andattendants 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 thecanal which Achang had indicated. At dinner the conversation wasconcerning the city, and the party mentioned many things the Nimrods hadnot seen. On Tuesday morning the ship sailed on her voyage to Saigon.