Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/98

are bleached and unbleached and turkey-red muslins, Siamese waist-cloths and some fading calicoes. Here are a few boxes of tea, some native umbrellas, a bunch of peacock-feathers, tigers' skins and tigers' bones, piles of coarse crockery, pieces of matting, etc. There are also pretty little brown teapots and tiny cups, all of which at home would be considered toys for children, but, I assure you, they are as large as any used by the tea-drinkers of this country. There is a set now on a little tray behind you that are in daily use. Ah! you want to purchase a set with the tray, do you? Well, you have made a very good selection, but the shopman may not fancy your flat silver coins, though they are fast being introduced. Make your selection and I will pay your bills. I have yet to show you the money of the country. See! a stamped silver bullet, with a small notch cut out of one side. What does it remind you of? I do not wonder you smile. This largest piece is a tical, and is worth sixty cents; this next size is a salung, or fifteen cents; this smallest a fuang, or seven and a half cents. If I had come shopping with you a few years ago, and you had wanted any smaller change, I should have used cowrie-shells, of which it took one thousand to equal a dime. The shopman is paid, and now with the Siamese good-bye, Chah! lah! pi kaun, we must move on. Do not think these are the only