reader into the paths of Religion, Honour, and Virtue."*

From what has been stated, and also from the authorities occasionally referred to,† we think ourselves authorized to advance, that traces of the language, learning, and mythology of the Hindus, will be found, not only throughout the Indo-Chinese nations, but also to the extremities of Tartary. That, in such extensive progress, some deviations may have been made; that, in some regions, new divinities may have been invented; and that rites and rules, necessary or admissible in the climate of India, may have been found inapplicable in more rigid countries, must naturally be supposed: but wherever we may direct

* Preface to the Grammar of the Sanscrit language, pp. x, xii.

+ See also the Author's Sketches on the Hindus, vol. ii. p. 171, et seq.; the account given of Thibet by Mr. Bogle, who was sent on an ambassy to the Lama by Governor Hastings.-Relation of another ambassy thither by Turner, in 4to; and the account given by Symes of his ambassy to Ava, 4to, and 8vo.

our inquiries, throughout the immense space we have mentioned, we are persuaded that some prominent features of the Hindu languages and religion will be discovered.

A short account of the doctrines and religious practices of the Siamese (we conceive) will, not unappropriately, conclude this chapter.

Their laws and tenets, as we have already observed, are written in Pali. They say, that "a language, in which so many mysteries are communicated, should itself be a mystery, and not profaned by the impious; or, what may be written in it, misapprehended by the ignorant."

Their religion enjoins the adoration of God; and Father Tachard,* with an honest frankness, observes, that as far as regards precepts of morality, and instruc

* A Jesuit missionary already quoted by us; he was at Siam at the same time as the Abbé de Choisy. See his Voyages à Siam, published at Paris in 1686 and 1689.

tions for our conduct in life, "no Christian can teach any thing more perfect than what it prescribes. It not only forbids its followers to do ill, but enjoins the necessity of doing good, and of stifling every improper thought, or criminal desire.”

The belief in an universal pervading spirit, and in the immortality and transmigration of the soul, forms a fundamental part of the doctrines of the Siamese. They believe the universe to be eternal, without beginning or end; but they admit, that particular parts of it, such as this world, its productions and inhabitants, may be destroyed and again regenerated.

They have their good and evil genii; their rural and other deities, who preside over their forests and rivers, and interfere in all sublunary affairs.

They are extremely curious to look into futurity, by applying to their astrologers and oracles; and there is a famous cavern where they go to make sacrifices, and consult the priests who attend there.

Far from considering suicide as a crime,

in some cases they think it commendable; that it may render service to the soul, by delivering it from an inconvenient habitation; and it is not uncommon to find a Siamese hanging upon a particular tree, dedicated to the god Mercury, and called in Balic Pra-si-maha-pout, or the tree sacred to the great Mercury.

The Talapoins, or priests, live in monasteries contiguous to the temples. They make vows of chastity, the breach of which is punished by the offender being burnt to death; but what is singular, and entirely opposite to the rules observed in India, any one may enter into the priesthood, and after a certain age may quit it, marry, and return into society. Nor are the people divided as in India into casts; but if the Hindū religion were introduced into Siam after a certain order of civil society had been already established there, it may be supposed that the system observed in India, of separating the people into casts, may have been omitted as no longer practicable. The Talapoins, however, are distinguished from,

and elevated above, the bulk of the people, nearly in the same manner as the Brahmins among the Hindus. They maintain with jealous care the respect they think due to their order; which, with charitable donations to themselves and the building and repairing of temples and monasteries, they inculcate as pious duties. They never return a salute to a layman, not even to the prince, though the prince never fails to salute a Talapoin.

By the rules of their order, they are enjoined to go to the temples and perform their devotions twice a day, in the morning and evening; to confess their faults to each other; to be watchful, not to encourage any wicked thought, or admit into their mind any doubt with respect to their religion; never to speak to any of the other sex alone, nor to look stedfastly upon any one they may accidentally meet; not to prepare their own food, but to eat what may be given, or set before them, ready dressed; not to enter into a house to ask alms, nor to wait for them longer at the