Page 70 - A History of Siam

A HISTORY OF SUM
66

King Rama T'ibodi was a great legislator.
We may assume that the Tai brought many of the legal
customs of Nanchao into Siam with them, and it is not
that laws had been committed to
improbable many
in Suk'ot'ai and elsewhere before the
writing long
foundation of The first Siamese laws of which
Ayut'ia.
we possess any definite knowlege are, however, those
promulgated by King Rama T'ibodi I. Many of these
laws have since been altered and extended by additions
from the Code of Manu, which was introduced later
from Burma, and was not altogether an improvement ;
but it may be taken that in their main principles the laws
have not been greatly changed ; and many of them are
still in force at the present time.
To give a complete commentary on the laws of King
Rama T'ibodi I would a volume of some size.
require
A few extracts and examples may, however, be of interest,
as the of Siamese mediaeval
showing general type legis-
lation.
The laws are attributed to Rama
following King
T'ibodi I :
i. The Law of Evidence
(A.D. 1350).
The most curious feature of this law is the
large
number of classes of who were from
persons precluded
with the consent of both
giving evidence, except parties,
to a case. These included : infidels, debtors of the
slaves of the diseased children
parties, parties, persons,
under seven, old persons over seventy, backbiters,
covetous homeless
persons, professional dancers, beggars,
the the
persons, deaf, blind, prostitutes, pregnant women,
hermaphrodites, impotent persons, sorcerers, witches,
lunatics, quack doctors, fishermen, bootmakers, gamblers,
thieves, criminals, and executioners.
It must have been rather hard on a man who
happened