Siamese, not only in their shows and pageants, but also often in the details of their everyday life, such as the ordinary dress of the men, forbids us to despair of the future. In the ornamentation of their religious buildings, which are often effective from a little distance, there is not much real beauty or originality, much of the design being Chinese. The plaster and stucco façades and doorways of the temples are generally covered with bright pieces of broken crockery and glass very skilfully inserted with endless labour, representing flowers and mosaic work. This, with the coloured glazed tiles on the roofs, the shapes of which are very graceful, and the gilded prachadees shining in the brilliant sunlight, produces far off a dazzling effect. But the materials used, being perishable and common, do not bear close inspection, and this florid arabesque work soon crumbles away, leaving in its place dust and sundried bricks. The gates of inlaid motherof-pearl in black lacquer are, as has been mentioned in a previous chapter, beautiful, and seem to survive longer, but as more "merit" is gained by building a new temple than by repairing an old one, there is often little done to preserve the wat, which gradually disappears half buried in dense tropical creepers and tangled jungle foliage. Much grace is exhibited in the dancing of the Siamese, which is slow and stately and performed to the accompaniment of music in a minor key. I have seen dancing by a troupe of girls before the king

which struck me as better than any I have witnessed in Japan. In the kindred art of music the Siamese may also be credited with some talent. They have a variety of native instruments, and there is often no little pathos and sweetness in the music produced by them. The creditable performances, too, by Siamese bands indicate that they cannot be altogether without aptitude for European music; though the boys and girls in the schools show such little evidence of talent for it that it is hardly worth the trouble of teaching them, and few of the Siamese who have been in Europe seem to have acquired any taste or love for it.

It must be admitted, then, that in the sphere of intellectual achievement, in scientific progress and invention, in literature and philosophy, and also, with some reservation, in art, Siamese civilisation has accomplished practically nothing. Not that individuals have not shown a love of learning and science-as, for instance, the late king and his brother, the second king. These, however, were exceptional men, and it cannot be said that there is a high standard of education, at any rate among the older generation, of upper-class Siamese. But though their civilisation is wanting on this important side, it is far more developed in the direction of all that makes for refinement and agreeableness in social life. Because the Siamese differ from us in many points in their way of living, which after all are purely conventional, it would be wrong to

disparage their civilisation. Certainly in most of the essentials of good breeding and manners the better Siamese need fear no comparison with Europeans of any nation. The uniform courtesy and kindness with which I was invariably treated I shall always remember with gratitude, and in the Director of my own department I had the good fortune to be habitually associated with one who combined some of the best qualities of an English gentleman with his own native charm and courtliness, not to mention considerable mental culture. That the life of the upper-class Siamese would to an Englishman be one long boredom is true, his chief occupation consisting in attending long palace functions, varied by a few flying visits perhaps to an office, with none of the solid mental interests or the outdoor physical pursuits which to us are the salt of existence. Such as it is, it seems to suit their temperament well enough. Whether a new generation educated more on English lines will retain and transmit to their posterity English habits and tastes, it is hard to say. But the experiment is worth trying, for we shall never readily admit that our mental and bodily faculties were given to us for no further or fuller use than the average Siamese appears to have found for them.