Читать книгу The Boy Travellers in the Far East, Part Second - Thomas Wallace Knox - Страница 18

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Having studied ancient Cambodia, Frank and Fred were desirous of learning something of the modern country of that name. At the hotel where they were stopping they found a gentleman who had recently been at Panompin, the Cambodian capital, and had spent sufficient time there to be able to give a good account of it. As soon as he found that his young acquaintances were anxious to hear about Cambodia, he promptly consented to enlighten them.

He was at leisure one evening after dinner, and, by mutual consent, the party gathered on the veranda in front of the hotel, and an hour was pleasantly passed in conversation regarding the little-known country.

A CAMBODIAN IDOL.

"If you think," said the gentleman, "that Panompin is a large city, as one naturally thinks of the capital of a country, you would be greatly disappointed if you went there.

"Its population is not more than twenty or twenty-five thousand, and is made up of several nationalities. There are Siamese, Chinese, Anamese, and Manilla men among the inhabitants, as well as the native Cambodians, and there are no long streets of fine buildings, such as you would expect a capital to contain. It is situated on the banks of the Mesap, a small river of Cambodia that empties into the Mekong: the greater part of Panompin is on the right bank of the stream, but there is a small portion of it on the opposite shore, and another on an island near the junction of the Mesap with the Mekong. To locate it on the map, you must put your finger at about latitude 11° 30' north, and longitude 105° east, and if your map is a good one, you will find a large lake not far off.

FISHING-VILLAGE ON LAKE THALYSAP.

"This is Lake Thalysap, and it is a body of water of no small importance. It is about ninety miles long, and varies from eight to twenty-five miles in width. It is very shallow except in a few places, and in the wet season the country around it is so flooded with water that the lake is then a hundred miles and more in length. There are many villages along the shores of the lake, and at all seasons of the year you can see whole fleets of boats going to and fro over the water. Great quantities of fish are caught in the lake, and those not intended to be eaten in the vicinity are dried or salted for export to other parts of Asia. There are also many fish caught for their oil; the villages along the lake make a considerable business by preparing this oil, and the stench is often so great that your nose will tell you the location of a village before your eyes do.

"In the lower part the lake narrows steadily until it forms a river, and this river is the Mesap, which I have mentioned to you; consequently you have only to follow the current to come to Panompin. It has only been the capital within the last ten years; until that time the seat of government was at Oodong, and the change was made on account of the supposed unhealthiness of the latter place. The real fact is that Panompin is better situated for commercial and political purposes, as it is at the end of the great lake, and close by the River Mekong. If you could see the two places you would understand it at once.

"You can have little idea of the quantity of fish caught in the lake and river till you see them. Lots of towns and villages are entirely occupied with the fish business, and some of these towns contain as many as four hundred houses, though the most of them are smaller. Some of the fish are eight or ten feet long and three feet thick, and their bodies are so full of oil that one of them is a good prize to his captor. It is very funny to see a native struggling with one of these large fish; and sometimes it requires a hard fight to bring him in. I have seen a man dragged into the water and nearly drowned; and though I enjoyed the performance, I presume it was no fun at all to the man.

PANOMPIN, THE CAPITAL OF CAMBODIA.

"Panompin consists, for the most part, of bamboo huts, without much pretence of architecture, and the streets are so bad that though the king has several carriages he rarely rides out. The principal street is about three miles in length, and somewhat irregular in its course, as though the instruments of the surveyor who laid it out were not in the best order. There are a few stores and shops of brick, and there are some temples whose spires rise above the buildings that surround them. The palace of the king is the finest edifice in the place; it was designed by a French architect, and the construction was supervised by him, but all the actual work was performed by natives. It is like a fine dwelling-house in the neighborhood of New York or London, and the internal arrangement of the rooms is entirely European in character. The palace has some large halls for receptions, and it has dining-rooms, sleeping-rooms, and all the usual apartments that a dwelling should contain. The king lives there; and, as he rarely goes out, he determined to have a residence as comfortable as could be made. He is very proud of it; and if you should visit him he would consider it a great politeness if you admired it all you possibly could—and a little more.

"Not far from the king's palace is the barrack, where the French troops are quartered for the preservation of order, and to see that the king does nothing that would be against the interest of his protectors. There is generally a French gun-boat or two lying in the river opposite the barracks, and in the river farther down there are two or three small gun-boats and steamers that belong to the king, and are kept near his palace.

"As the city has so much dependence on the river for its support, there is a tendency on the part of the inhabitants to crowd near the stream; consequently Panompin stretches about three miles along the bank, and less than half a mile away from it. This is where you find the street I have mentioned; it is not more than thirty feet wide, and paved with a concrete mass of broken brick mixed with sand. You find a straggling line of low huts of bamboo or other light material along the whole length of this street, and in the busy hours of the day the assemblage of people is pretty dense. The Chinese are great gamblers, and a goodly portion of these huts are gambling-shops, whose proprietors pay a license for the privilege of running the business. In several of these Eastern countries the money received from gambling forms an important item in the public revenue; and if it should be stopped, the treasury would suffer in consequence."

"What an outrageous piece of business!" said Frank. "To think that a government would derive any part of its revenue from gambling!"

"But remember we are in Asia," Fred remarked; "and we can't expect these people to be civilized."

The Doctor smiled at this outburst of indignation, and when it was ended he reminded the boys that several governments of Europe did exactly what they thought so reprehensible when done by Asiatics.

"Not governments of any consequence," said Frank.

"Well," answered the Doctor, "I hardly think we could say that. Italy, Spain, and Austria are certainly of some consequence, and in all of them the lottery, which is a form of gambling, is a government institution. It is only a few years ago that the gambling-tables at Baden-Baden, in Germany, were stopped, and there was serious talk, at the time, of allowing the gamblers that were suppressed in Germany to open their business at Geneva, in Switzerland.

"And furthermore," Doctor Bronson continued, "we cannot throw many stones at the Chinese and other Eastern people for gambling when we have so much of it in America. In all our large cities the vice exists in defiance of the law; and in some of the States, particularly in Kentucky and Louisiana, the lottery is a recognized institution, and the drawings are supervised by officers appointed by the governor."

Frank and Fred both declared that this information was new to them, and hereafter they would not be too hasty to condemn other countries, lest they might find that the thing they objected to prevailed in their own.

The description of Panompin was resumed:

"There are some manufactures in the Cambodian capital," their informant continued, "but they are not numerous. The people are famous for their manufactures of silk, which is an important article of export, both in its raw and in its finished state. They are skilful workers of gold and silver, and I could show you some exquisite specimens of their production. Wait a moment and I will bring one."

SPECIMEN OF CAMBODIAN GOLD-WORK.

He went to his room, which was situated just off the veranda, and returned in a few moments with a small box resembling a flattened orange, or, more properly, a melon. The boys took it to the light, and examined it with care.

The gold, as well as the workmanship, was Cambodian; some of it was the natural color of the metal, and other parts were stained to various degrees of redness. On the top there was a cluster of leaves, and the end of the stem contained a topaz, which had been purposely left unfinished.

The leaves were in fine filigree, and some of the wires were so delicate that they resembled golden hairs. The whole surface of the box was covered with flowers and leaves in the most tasteful designs; and both the boys were of opinion that the jewellers of New York would not find it easy to imitate this production of the Asiatic barbarians.

"The king has a fine collection of these things," the gentleman continued, "and he generally gives one of them to any stranger of importance who visits him. It is lucky for his treasury that it is not easy to go to Panompin, as otherwise he might find these presents a serious expense.

THE KING OF CAMBODIA.

"And if you wish to know about the king, here is his photograph. You perceive that it is taken in European dress, which he wears on grand occasions, and has adopted since the French Protectorate was established in Cambodia. He is an amiable gentleman of pleasing manners, and makes an agreeable impression on those who come in contact with him. He has quite a collection of English and French books, maps, and albums, and is fond of showing them; and he has a fine lot of Japanese and Chinese vases—enough to stock a fair-sized museum. Then he has European clocks, music-boxes, and the like; and he has a billiard-table, on which he plays very well. He also has a piano, but those who have heard him perform on it say that he is better at billiards than at music.

"The carpets, furniture, and other adornments of his palace are mostly from Europe, but he has some fine specimens of native embroidery that are fully equal to any of his foreign importations. He sleeps in a bed of European manufacture, and the netting that protects him from mosquitoes is from an English or French loom. He has travelled to Hong-kong and Shanghai, where he spent much time in learning all he could about the productions of the western part of the world, and, on his return, he endeavored to give his people the benefit of his knowledge. He is much liked by his people; and, on the whole, they could hardly hope for a better ruler.