File:Siam (1908) (14753198706).jpg

Identifier: siampeepsatmany00youn (find matches)
Title: Siam
Year: 1908 (1900s)
Authors: Young, Ernest, 1869-1952 Norbury, Edwin Arthur, 1849-
Subjects: Thailand -- Description and travel
Publisher: London : A. and C. Black
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ould wear garments andjewels of the same colour as the ruling planet. Manyrich people do actually observe this custom, and wearred silk and rubies on Sundays in honour of the sun ;white and moonstones on Monday, the day of themoon ; light red and coral on Tuesday, the day ofMars ; green and emeralds on Wednesday, the day ofJupiter ; stripes and cat s-eyes for Jupiters Thursday ;silver blue and diamonds on Friday, when Venus rules ;and dark blue and sapphires on Saturday, when thechief planet is Saturn. CHAPTER XIII FISHING One of the chief commandments of the Buddhistreligion is, Thou shalt not kill. This does not refermerely to the lives of human beings, but to all creatures—mosquitoes, fleas, flies, or elephants. The reason forthe commandment is that, as we have already explained,when a person dies, his soul is reborn again in anotherbody, and this body may possibly be that of someanimal. Hence, if you kill a mosquito, you maypossibly be killing your own or some one elses long- 56
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Fishing deceased relative. The rule about not taking life isvery generally observed, but is neglected in the case offish. The Siamese excuses himself for fishing, on theground that he does not kill the fish. He only pullsthem out of the water ; they die a natural death. In Lower Siam fish forms an important part of thefood of the people. In Upper Siam it is looked uponas a great luxury, for the rivers in the north are singu-larly poor in animal life. The absence of fish in thestreams of Upper Siam is probably due to the fact thatin the dry season the water is too shallow to allow thefish to live, and that in the wet season the current,swollen by the heavy rains, is extremely rapid, anddrives them down-stream. Of the many methods employed for catching fish, thefavourite one is by means of enormous traps. Thesetraps are made by fixing a number of bamboos uprightin shallow water. A long V-shaped neck is formed,which is sometimes nearly a quarter of a mile long, andwhich leads by a narrow

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