Siam is called by its people "Muang Thai" (the kingdom of the free). The appellation which we employ is derived from a Malay word _sagûm_ (the brown race), and is never used by the natives themselves; nor is the country ever so named in the ancient or modern annals of the kingdom. In the opinion of Pickering, the Siamese are of Malay origin. A majority of intelligent Europeans, however, regard the population as mainly Mongolian. But there is much more probability that they belong to that powerful Indo-European race to which Europe owes its civilization, and whose chief branches are the Hindoos, Persians, Greeks, Latins, Kelts, and the Teutonic and Sclavonic tribes. The original site of this…
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