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266 SIAM.
into
Tai,
two distinct tribes ; the T'kay J'hay, or Great
who inhabit the country between the Meinam
and the Meikong, and the Thny Noe, or Little Tai,
who, for the most part, inhabit the western bank of
the Meinam, extending to the frontiers of Birmah, and
who are at present the ruling race in Siam.* The for-
mer are the more ancient race ; and they are the people
once famous for their learning and the power of their
empire. The records of their dynasty are supposed
still to exist. The annals of the latter race are said to
detail, with much minuteness and great exaggeration,
the events which have happened in Siam and the
adjacent states during the last 1000 years. They
also, with less precision, go back 400 years earlier, to
the building of the city Maha.Nakhon. Their astro-
nomical era, however, is said to correspond to
A.D. 638*f
HISTORY OF SIAM.
WARS with Pegu and usurpations of the throne
constitute the only leading features of Siamese history
subsequently to the discovery of the country. In 1568,
Chaumigren, king of Pegu, invaded Siam, and after
scenes of carnage, its monarch became his tributary.
On his death in 1583, the king of Siam, as well as the
kings of Ava and Tonghoo revolted ; and about 1600,
after a series of desolating wars, succeeded in esta-
blishing their independence.! Early in the seven-
* Leyden. As. Res. vol. x. p. 241.
t See p. 104. M. Malte Brun, without stating his authority,
ssys, that their first king began his reign about A. D. 756.
t "The Kingdom of Siam," says Le Blanc, "was subject to
continual revolutions, till Bramaa, king of Pegu," (who is stated
to have been the son of the conqueror Chaumigren,) " took occa-