Several kinds of animals in Siam contain individuals of a white colour, which is rarely the case in other countries. Besides white elephants, Fiulayson found white monkeys, white buffaloes, and white deer, and he thinks that this anomaly in the colour of the animals is connected with the peculiarities of the climate.
Gold is obtained in small quantities in the mountains of the Malay peninsula, and at the southern extremity of those of Siam. Tin exists in many places in the southern mountains, in those of the Malay peninsula, and also on the island of Salanga. It constitutes a considerable article of export. Iron is very abundant in both ranges which form the boundary of the valley of the Menem, and is worked on a very extensive scale. Copper and lead are found in some places, and worked to some extent. Zinc is said to abound, but is not worked. Antimony is worked on a small scale. The sapphire, the Oriental ruby, and the Oriental topaz aro obtained by digging the alluvial moil at the bottom of the hills that surround the plain of Chan-ti•bon. Salt is made in the low wooded and uninhabited country which extends along tho sea between the mouths of the Menem.
leltabitants.—Tho population of Siam is composed of different nations, part of whom are aborigines, and part emigrants from other countries. The first class of inhabitants consists of Siamese, Laos, Cambojans, and Malays, who have attained a certain, though different degree of civilisation, and of Kariang, Laws, Kim, Chong, and Samsng, who occupy some mountain regions, and seem to be back ward in civilisation. The Immigrant nations are Chinese, Moham medans, llindooa, Peguans, and Portuguese.
The Siamese, Laos, Catubojans, and Malays, who conatituto about three-fourths of the entire population, seem to belong to the same race with the Birmans and inhabitants of Cochin-China: they are all members of the great Mongol family. Their average height is five feet three inches. The skin is of a lighter colour than that of the Asiatics to the west of the Ganges, a colour which, in the high ranks, where a yellow cosmetic is generally used, approaches that of gold. ha texture is remarkably smooth, soft, and shining. They have a strong tendency to obesity. The cheek bones are largo and prominent, and give to the whole face the form of a lozenge. The forehead, though less prominent towards the side, is broad, and covered with the hairy scalp in greater proportion than in any other people. In some it descends to within an inch, or even less, of the eyebrows, covers the whole of the temples, and stretches forward to within nearly the same distance of the outer angle of the eye. The diameter of the head from the front backwards is very short, and hence the general form is somewhat cylindrical ; and, in a great number of instances, from the crown to the nape of the neck is nearly a straight line. The top of the head is often unusually flat The hair is black,
thick, coarse, and long. The features are never bold, prominent, or well defined. The nose is small, round at the point, but not flattened as in the negro ; and the nostrils, instead of tieing parallel, diverge greatly. The mouth is wide, but not projecting ; the lips are rather thick. The eyes are small, and the outer angles are more turned up than in the western recce, though not so much as in the Chinese. Tho eyebrows are neither prominent nor well marked, The beard consists only of a few strag4ling hairs.
The Siamese call themselves Thiry, but are called by the Malays, and some other neighbouring nations, Ziiam, or 'bun, from which word the term Siam is derived. They speak a peculiar language, of which however that which is spoken in Laoa is only a dialect. It consists of monosyllabic words ; but these are mixed with a considerable number of words taken from the Pali language, and others from the Chinese. The alphabet is mixed up with characters taken from the - — Pali and Devanagari. It is need in common life, and some poetry and Derail, as well as historical compositions, are written iu it. But the sacred literature is only written in the Pali language, which, together with the worship of Buddha, was introduced into Siam and the adjacent countries iu the 4th century of our era.
Dirt:ions and Totrns.--Tho government of Siam is an absolutedespotism, not limited even by ancient cuatome, by the estahlished tenets of religion, or by the authority of hereditary chiefs. Siam is coursed of countries which constitute the kingdom of Siam, and are Immediately subject to the sovereign ; and also of tributary countries, governed by their own princes, who are dependent on the king of Siam. The former consist of tho kingdom of Siam, called by the natives ludara Thay-im, and of a portion of the kingdom of Cam boja, called by the Siamese ludara Slum. The tributary princes inhabit the countries north and south of the kingdom. Ou the north are the countries of the princes of Laos; and on the south the princes who govern a portion of the eastern coast of the Malay peninsula.
/adore 7lay-aos, or Siam Proper, comprehends the countries along the eastern coast of the Gulf of Siam, as far inland as the mountains of Camboja, and those in the basin of the river Menam as far north as 18' N. lat, together with the isthmus of Krah, the Malay Penin aula, and as far south as the British colony of Province Wellesley, V' N. lat. The small Malay kingdom of Keddab, or Queda, has been incorporated into Siam proper, and now constitutes a part of the province of Ligor. Siam proper is divided into eighteen provinces.