Page 41 - A History of Siam

A HISTORY OF SIAM 39

the beneficent
certainly animists, worshipping spirits
of the hills, forests, and waters, and propitiating numerous
demons with sacrifices and This
offerings. simple
faith survives in Siam to the and in the
present day,
north still more the of the
is
truly religion country
people than is Buddhism.

NOTE TO CHAPTER I

Marco Polo visited southern China about A.D. 1872, after the
of Nanchao Kublai Khan. He describes non-
conquest by
Chinese races living in the south and south-west of China;
these were Tai
presumably people.
Marco Polo mentions the Province of Karaian, with its capital
at Yachi The of this Province were
(probably Talifu). people
had a to lived on
idolaters, language peculiar themselves, rice,
and used cowrie shells as money and for ornament. They also
ate raw and into a of salt and
meat, chopped up put pickle spices.
This is the dish known as lap in northern Siam at the present
time.
In the Province of Kardandan, presumably also a Tai
Province, Marco Polo found the people tattooing themselves with
a as the Tai do In this
five-pronged implement, just to-day.
district had neither temples nor but worshipped their
they idols,
ancestors. no of The
They possessed knowledge writing.
treatment of disease was carried out a of exorcism of
by process
evil and the of this does not
spirits, description given process
differ from the method in use at the time in
greatly present
of Siam.
many parts