Hamilton’s account of the east indies. 465

outfide, and in a fun-fhine they reflect the rays fo ftrongly, that at two or three milesdiftance, they difturb the eye, when looked upon.

They have many large temples well decorated after their way, and well Hocked withgilded images of gods and goddeffes, of the priefts contrivance and canonizing, andthey never want devotees to adore them, who pav their deceitful impofers very well fordeceiving them; but they are not the only people that are fo cunningly deluded, for thefatal cuftom has fpread univerfally in ail the corners of the world.

The great God , who created the univerfe, they have no image of, nor can they makeany of him, becaufe he never fltewed himfelf in any bodily fhape, and therefore theycan form no idea of his lhape, dimenfions, or beauty ; but Tipedah, the great God ’spartner, has often {hewed himfelf, and hirn they worlhip in his image with the higheftadoration. Praw Prumband Sommo Cuddem, his friends, they adore with the fecor.ddegree in worlhip ; and Prapout and Samfay have the third fort of veneration paid totheir images.

They have many little deities inferior to thofe above-mentioned, whom they adore aspatrons or protectors of feveral tribes of men, and other animals of different countriesand cities, of health, profperity, and other chances and cafualties ; fo every one is atliberty to choofe his own patron or protestor, and worlhip him according to his ownmind, but none are perfecuted for the opinion of the way he is to worlhip, either thegreat or the little gods. That heavenly frenzy is only a raging mad diftemper thatafferis the melancholic brains of the weftern world.

I was in one temple pretty large, built exaftly four-fquare, and each fquare con-tained juft an hundred images. They were placed in niches or domes about four feetfrom the ground. There were more goddeffes than gods, and all were in a fittingpofture, crofs-legged, as tailors fit on their Ihopboards. Their nofes were low and fmall,their vifage long, their ears large, and the lappets of them thick and plump. They fatpromifcuoufly in thofe niches, and all clothed in one livery of gold leaf. They werealmoft as big as full-grown men and women, but very different in their fubftances.The priefts told us, that fome were of pure gold, others of Tecul filver, which has noalloy in it, fome of copper, and fome of brafs, and fome of baked clay ; but, for wantof fumpture laws among them, it was hard to know the gentleman from the beggarby their garb, or a lady from a laundrefs.

In one temple, as I was informed, Hands the famous Samfay, twenty yards in height.He is in a right lineal defeent from little Samfay, who caufed fo much war betweenSiam and Pegu, which never ended but with the diffolution of the Pegu empire. Inmolt of their temples there are frightful dragons, Handing fentinels at their gates, butwhether they are placed there to keep in the gods, or to keep out devils, 1 know not.

There are reckoned no lefs than 50,000 clergymen, or tallapoys, belonging to thetemples, in and about the city of Siam ; but they are cafy to the Hate, having no Hatedbenefices or other revenues, and yet they are plentifully fupplied with all the neceffariesof life by the charity and benevolence of the laity.

There is one temple about three miles below the city, on the oppofite fide cf the 1river, called the Fifties’ Temple; becaufe annually in the month of September, whenthe floods overflow the low ground (as in Egypt )* there are good numbers of fiftres,almoft like fmall falmon, that frequent a pond dole to that temple, and are to be foundin no other place in the Siam dominions, and they are fo tame, that they will comeclofe to our boats, and frilk and play on the furface of the water, and if any body hasa mind to feed them with bread, cocoa-nut, meat, or other food that does not eaiiiy

vol. viii. 3 Q feparate i