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honour of certain Gods, to whom they are dedicated and named after them. They are commonly provided with shelves on which the Devotees place their offerings for the benefit of the priests.

In the other Square (See Fig. 14) within its walls were rang'd Flower-pots and Boxes for plants. There stood Topoo Trees. also within it several Topoo Trees, in the East Indies

FIG. 18. A pyramid such as the Siamites commonly place about their temples and in other holy places. It is, as it were, cloven at the top.

call'd Rawasith, and Bipel. This is a sort of a Milk or Fig Tree, of the size of a beach, with extended branches, a smooth grey bark, and round but long pointed leaves, bearing a round fruit, which is insipid, and nourishment only for Bats. All the Pagans of these parts hold it to be holy, and pleasing to the Gods, for as much as their great Saint Sammana Khodum always chose to sit under it, and for this reason they love to plant it near their temples, if the Soil and Climate will allow it. The like holiness is Remarkable ascrib'd to another Milk or Fig Tree, whose branches Fig Tree. bending towards the ground take root in it, after they touch it, and form as many new Stems, by which means it extends it self far round about: It hath leaves not unlike

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Remarkable
Tree with
Birds nests.

Religion of the
Siamites.

those of the Lauro-Cerasus, but larger and bears a fruit like the other, which bats love to eat. The Ceylonese call it also Budhum Gas, that is Budhum's Tree. But it is difficult to plant and not proper to stand near the temples by reason of its spreading so far. This second square contain'd two remarkable Temples, the first of which represented on each door in the porch two Savages with heads of Devils, (See Fig. 14) and at the back door were painted two Portugueze as big as the Life. A great festival is yearly celebrated in this Temple. There stood besides in this second square some other Chapels with Idols in them, as also divers fine pyramids, some of which are gilt over, and others full of monstrous figures. It would be too tedious to describe each of them in particular, and I think it sufficient to have given the figures of the most remarkable ones in Figs. 17-23.

Before I leave this Subject, I must take notice of a Tree of a strange nature, which one meets with going out of the City towards these two squares, over the Dyke made not long ago for shutting up the Southern arm of the great River. It is of the size of an Apple tree, has narrow leaves, and long spreading branches, at the extremities and smallest Twigs of which hang Bird's nests, ingeniously twisted together of dry grass and other stuff in the form of a Purse with a long and narrow neck. The openings of these Nests look to the North-west, so that no South wind, nor rain can come in. I told upwards of fifty of them only on this tree, and never met with the like on any other. The Birds were of a dark yellowish colour, not unlike Canary Birds, and chirping almost like Sparrows, of which otherwise there is a great plenty in this Country. Another extraordinary thing in this Tree is, that the trunk and larger branches of it are full of crabbed excrescencies, or warts of different figures, which the Inhabitants make use of as a Medicine against certain distempers.

The Religion of these People is the Pagan Doctrine of the Brahmans, which ever since many Centuries hath been

profess'd amongst all the Nations from the River Indus to the extremity of the East, except that at the Court of the Grand Mogul, and in his great Cities, as also in Summatra, Java, Celebes, and other neighbouring Islands the Mahometism has gain'd so much ground, that it seems to prevail above it. This general Paganism, (which is to be distinguish'd from the Religion of the old Persians worshipping the Sun, now almost extinct) tho' branch'd

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out into several Sects and Opinions, according to the various Customs, Languages and Interpretations, yet is of one and the same Origine. The Siamites represent the first Teacher of their Paganism in their Temples, in the figure of a Negro sitting, of a prodigious size, his hair curl'd, the skin black, but as it were out of respect gilt over, accompanied on each side by one of his chief Companions, as also before and round about him by the rest of his Apostles and Disciples, all of the same colour and most in the same posture. They believe according to the Brahmans, that the Deity dwelt in him, which he prov'd by his Doctrine, Way of Life, and Revelation. For Wistnu, by which they mean the Deity, having already

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Siaka.

Where born.

many hundred thousands of years before assum'd different forms, and visited the World eight different times, appear'd the ninth in the person of this Negro, whom for this reason they stile Prahpuditsau, that is to say, the Saint of high descent; Sammana Khutama, the Man without Passions: Prah bin Tsjau, the Saint who is the Lord; or plainly Prah, the Saint, or Budha' (or Phutha' in one syllable, according to their guttural pronunciation, like that of the Hottentots). The Ceylanese call him Budhum, the Chinese and Japanese Sacka, or Siaka, or plainly Fotoge, that is, the Idol, and with an honourable Epithet Si Tsun, the great Saint.

About his origine and native Country, I find the account of those Heathens do not agree. The Siamites call the Country of his nativity Lanca, which is the Island of Ceylon, from whence they say, their Religion was first brought over to them, and afterwards further propagated through the neighbouring Countries as far as China and Japan. Accordingly there are still to be seen some foot steps of their Religion, as well of that which they exercis'd before, as of the other sprung up in the room of it, on the top of a high mountain in the Island of Ceylon, by the Europeans call'd Pico d'Adam, which they look upon as holy, and in their Maps place it in the Centre of the World. The Ceylonese themselves call the Country of his nativity Macca desia, meaning by it the Kingdom of Siam, for they make use of the Pali, or Bible of the Siamites, which the Peguans call Maccatapasa, in their Khom, or Language of the Khomuts, owning that they had it from the Siamites. The Chinese and Japanese pretend that this Saint, and the Doctrine he reveal'd, had their origine in the Country of Magatta, or as the Japanese call it, Tensik Magatta Kokf, that is the Heavenlandish Magatta, which according to their description and opinion is the Continent of India, including Pegu and Siam, adding withal, that Siaka was the Son of the King of those Countries, the Inhabitants of which ascribe to each other the origin of their Teacher, a Prophet, as it