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294 SIAM.
musical people.
" Even persons of rank," says Mr.
Finlayson, " think it no disparagement to acquire a
proficiency in the art. Their music is for the most
part extremely lively, and more pleasing to the ear of
a European, than the want of proficiency in the more
useful arts of civilised life would lead him to expect of
such a nation. Whence this proficiency has arisen,
it may be somewhat difficult to explain; more especially
as the character of their music partakes but little of
that eccentricity of genius and apparent, heaviness of
mind and imagination, for which they are, in other
respects, so remarkable. We have no means of ascer-
taining what is of domestic origin, or how much they
may be indebted to foreign intercourse for the im-
we were told
provement of their music. On inquiry,
that the principal instruments were of Birman, Peguan,
or Chinese origin, and that much of the music had
been borrowed from the two first-mentioned nations,
particularly from "
Pegu. It is somewhat singular that
these nations consider the Siamese as superior in mu-
sical skill, and attribute to them the invention of the
principal instruments, as may be seen in Col. Symes's
account of those countries.
" It might be supposed that the Siamese had bor-
rowed their music from the same source that they
have their religion, the softness, the playful sweetness
and simplicity of the former seeming to harmonise
in some degree with the human tenets, the strict
morality, and apparent innocence of the latter. The
prominent and music, appears
leading character, however, of the
to be common to the Malays and
other inhabitants of the Indian islands, as well as to
the whole of the Indo-Chinese nations.
" My friend Captain Dangerfield, himself an adept
in musical science, remarks that the music of the