Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume VIII, No. 5 [‎16v] (35/154)

438
JOURNEY ROUND SIAM.
time to construct ingenious theories from this little statement, hut I
put it on record, and perhaps the learned in these matters may find
that it forms at least a condensed version of the already received
notions about the construction and object of these wonderful structures.
The next portion of my journey lay through the western side of the
Mekong basin, with the town of Korat as a halfway resting-place.
Bullock-cart is the method of locomotion in this district, and as these
crazy vehicles are dragged along at a pace of about mile an hour,
an ordinary day’s march is a long and toilsome business. It was now
the month of March, and the heat was becoming oppressive—so much so
that I found it necessary, in order to get any progress at all out of the
bullocks, to make my caravan travel during the coolness of the night,
and rest, if possible, in some shady spot during the day. Our usual
marching hours were from three in the morning till eight or nine,
and then again from three in the afternoon till eight, and the average
number of miles covered in that time was only about 15 or 16. I rode
a pony myself, and a very small animal he was—so diminutive, in fact,
that I could barely keep my feet off the ground; but he was a hardy
little beast, and gallantly carried me all the way between Siamrap and
Nongkhai, on the Mekong, a distance of nearly 500 miles. I sold him
then for 30s., but as he only cost £2 originally, it could not be called an
expensive ride, particularly as he ate nothing but burnt-up grass and a
little rice.
The character of the country throughout the whole of this region
is much alike, and becomes to the traveller exceedingly tiring and
monotonous. The trail, as one may call it—for there is no pretence
at road-making—winds through open jungle, the trees being about
30 feet high, and mostly mai rang, mai teng, and mai yang, as they
are called in Siamese—resinous trees of the Dipterocarpus genus. The
landscape is flat, with the exception of the rise up to the Korat plateau,
and there the highest average level above the sea is about 800 feet,
with a very gentle dip in an easterly direction towards the Mekong.
The population, which is Cambodian up to and. somewhat beyond
Dong Bek hills and Lao north of that, is exceedingly scanty. In
the neighbourhood of Dong Bek hills are found a race called Suey,
who speak their own peculiar dialect in addition to Cambodian or
Lao. I hey would appear to be the remnants of aboriginal tribes, and
are, if anything, uglier, dirtier, and more primitive-looking than the
surrounding Cambodians and Lao. The Korat people, who are also
an ugly but sturdy race, seem to be a hybrid of Lao and the aboriginal
Suey ; but, from the neighbourhood of Cambodian settlements in this
district, there is every probability that the limit of the ancient Kmer
kingdom extended right up to Korat.
In and around the town of Korat, however, Siamese is the prevailing
language, and the “panung,” or Siamese loin-cloth, which is drawn