Читать книгу Siam and Laos, as Seen by Our American Missionaries - Various - Страница 12
ОглавлениеIN AND ABOUT PETCHABUREE.
Our mission-boat, with its drawers and cupboards and shelves for storing away food, clothes, etc., awaits us at Bangkok. Rowers are hired for twenty-four cents per day, with enough rice for food. We start out with the rising tide in our favor. The boat moves steadily on. Reading, conversation and sleeping fill our time. At last we notice that the houses along the banks are larger and better built, and, passing around a bend of the river, we see our mission compound, consisting of three large brick houses and one smaller. Two of the houses are occupied by the mission family; the third is the Petchaburee Home for Siamese girls, in charge of the missionary ladies. The chapel front is used for worship each morning. The small house is Dr. Sturge’s hospital.
Leaving the boat, we climb the steps on the left bank, and enter the yard with its green grass and blooming flowers. We are gladly welcomed, for our arrival here is a great treat.
HOUSE AT PETCHABUREE.
Siam is one of the hot countries where everything moves slowly. Our boat-trip of from thirty-six to forty-eight hours has made us glad to rest till evening. When it is cooler we will take a walk to the nearest mountain, which is about three-quarters of a mile from the mission compound. The road along the river-bank is forty or fifty feet wide and very smooth, and shaded on either side by beautiful trees. We pass several native houses, and come to a beautiful grassy plain, beyond which are rice-fields reaching to the foot of “The Mountain of the Highest Heaven.” On its summit stands the large royal summer palace, built by the late supreme king, whose white buildings glitter in the sun and form a beautiful contrast to the green ranges of distant hills. His Majesty and his court spend part of every year here. A paved walk with steps leads up the hill. Passing some plain two-story brick buildings, you come to the wide terraces and surrounding barracks of His Majesty’s private apartments, the walls of which are covered with rough paintings representing some of the Buddhistic fables. The floor of the king’s reception-room is paved with marble blocks about a foot square, and at one side is a raised seat for the king. Royalty in Siam never sits on a level with common people. A very pretty Brussels mat is placed for the king’s feet, and when he visits the palace a set of stuffed chairs covered with blue brocade satin are brought to ornament the place.
There are a number of smaller buildings surrounding the palace for the numerous attendants of the king. On the very summit of the hill, separate from the palace, is a large audience-hall—a long, low room, almost entirely bare, with a semi-circular throne, consisting of four stone steps, at one end. Two large Siamese paintings—“The Reception of the French Ambassadors at Court” and “Bonzes Worshiping Gaudama”—are painted on the side-walls. There is also a round brick tower about thirty feet in height, used as an observatory. The view from this tower is enchanting—on one side extensive fields of ripened paddy, groves of sugar-palms and cocoanuts, with here and there a hill rising abruptly from the plain; the city, the river, the canals, and far off to the east the blue waters of the gulf; west and south there extend at least three distinct ranges of low, thickly-wooded hills.
If it were earlier in the day we would ascend the mountain and visit the Buddhist temple and large pagoda near, and measure the great image of Buddha, each foot seven feet long, with fingers and toes as large around as the body of a stout person; but it is nearing sunset and we turn our faces homeward.
Our road now leads through rice-fields, which reach to the foot of the mountain. We meet people coming home from their work in the fields. Some of them have poles across their shoulders, to which are attached bundles of sticks for fuel or perhaps sheaves of rice which they have gathered. Some stop to speak to us or to look at us, and we give them a tract or one of the Gospels; but we must not tarry, for when the sun is gone in these tropical countries it is soon dark. The brick building a little to the right as we return is the Presbyterian church of Petchaburee.
VIEW OF THE MOUNTAINS OF PETCHABUREE.
The next morning we take an early start for the Royal Cave. It is too far to walk, so we ride over the road which we took before to the foot of the mountain, then off to the right, a mile, to another mountain. We leave the conveyance and climb the mountain-side to a gate, which we enter, and find steps which lead down into the cave. The nooks and corners are filled with idols and figures representing the miseries of the lost, and the bottom of the cave is paved with tiles and surrounded on all sides with rows of idols, large and small. The cave itself is grand, with its columns of stalactites and stalagmites. From one of the former water drops so fast that a plaster basin has been made to receive it. This water is very cool and pleasant to drink. An opening at the top of the cave admits the sunshine and brightens the whole scene. Here are two large rooms, the second unpaved, but having rows of idols, and being lighted from the top like the first. Passing through this room, we come into a narrow way as dark as possible, leading into a very small space lighted from above, where we find a very long ladder. Up, up, we go, and again we find ourselves on the mountain-side. We are glad to return home, for the heat has grown very oppressive while we have been in the cave.
At about three o’clock we will take a walk to the city to see the market, and as we stroll along the bank of the river we pass the three brick houses belonging to the ex-regent of Siam. These are thickly shaded by large trees, and the green lawn is bounded by a hedge. Here we enter a street of the city, and soon come to a massive bridge, and, turning to the left, cross the river and find ourselves upon the main street of the city. It seems strange to call it a city, and yet its population is estimated at twenty thousand. The streets are very narrow and have no sidewalks. Some of the houses are brick and some bamboo. The stores have an open room next the street, with a little porch where the salesman or saleswoman sits. The people who have brought articles to market for sale have arranged their wares on either side the street, and now we are surrounded by fish, pork, vegetables and fruits in such abundance that it is difficult to make one’s way among them.
As we pass up the street we come to a large open gate on either side. That on the left opens into the governor’s grounds. His Excellency is hearing a case. The court-room is simply a shed, where the governor sits on a chair or bench, while the accused and accuser, the witnesses and judges, sit on the ground at his feet. The gate on the right opens into a yard surrounding the new courthouse, a good brick building, from which a walk leads to the river. This river is like one street of the city, for boats are passing and repassing constantly.
Leaving the market, we pass on and find the houses built farther apart, and there are more shade-trees. The people on either side are cooking their rice, and some are already eating. Soon we come to a nice clean cross-street, and, following this, we reach another running parallel with the river, and the prettiest street of the city. It has plenty of shade and several temples, including one in Chinese architecture, highly ornamented. In the temple-grounds are some very pretty flowers, and when we reach the governor’s place we find a really beautiful garden, with a summer-house covered with blooming vines standing in the midst, surrounded by a variety of well-selected and beautifully-arranged flowers. A little farther on we come to a cross-street that brings us to the vice-governor’s place, back across the main street and to the bridge. We pause here for our final look at the lovely scene. Up and down the river boats are passing constantly. On either side of the stream are stately palms, the spreading mango and the feathery branches of the bamboo. Facing the bridge where we stand is Palace Mountain, with its sides dressed in green and its summit crowned with the brilliancy of the setting sun. We gaze on its splendor, and as we stand hushed by the beauty all about us, our hearts go up in prayer that it may be but a symbol of the beauty of holiness that shall soon cover this fair land.
