I grew up with a grandma in my house. We lived in a squatter area with wooden houses. Down the road was a family who was rich enough to rebuild their house with half brick walls and proper roof tiles instead of zinc sheets. There were many people coming and going at all times of the day and night for a few months. One day I heard wailing and keening from that house. I ran there with a group of children.
Apparently a man died. Soon a wooden coffin was delivered. That night the children were all present to witness the Taoist rituals to bring the departed to the desired level in hell. In those days, coffins were huge and ornate. They were carved from gigantic tree trunks. The top was curvy and I imagine a few bodies could fit in if the trunk was really hollowed to create maximum space. We saw the Taoist priest leading the family round and round the coffin. We also saw the children of the deceased carrying water containers all around the wake area and later poured the water into a basin placed under a small wooden bridge. There were musical instruments being played and the priests took turn to sing out what was required.
The next day my grand ma grabbed hold of the situation and taught us a lesson about how the man died. It seemed the deceased was a trader. He spent a good part of his earlier life living in two countries. He brought goods from Siam to his home town and also other goods from his home country to Siam. I guess today we call it export import business. Except in those days roads were narrow and winding, goods were mainly transported by boats. Like many Chinese business man, he set up two house holds. Since he was constantly on the move, he spent equal amount of time with either family. It seemed a logical approach, that way he was taken good care of by two wives. Since he was able to support both families quite comfortably, neither wife minded the fact that he had two sets of children.
All good things eventually came to an end, he grew old and wanted to retire. He chose to pay off his Siamese wife and gave part of his estate to his children there. No one knew if he was mean or fair to them, he never revealed much. But it seemed the Siamese wife told him that if he did not return after six months, he would not live beyond the next six months. He scoffed as he was in excellent health. But true to what the woman claimed, he fell ill on the dot of six months after his final return. After spending much money, he would seem to recover with each type of treatment only to fall more seriously ill the following week. Ultimately he did not live long enough to celebrate the anniversary date of return.
My grandma said that Siamese ladies were pretty and charming. It was extremely easy for Chinese from out of Siam to woo and marry them. They made excellent wives too. But woe to the man who desired to return to his homeland, the wives would not follow. It was customary that through the years he would have swallowed some form of black magic, it would not hurt him as long as he kept returning to his foreign wife. But should he decide to leave for good, he would not be able to live for long whether he believe or not in black magic. Of course all these were tales from fifty or so years ago. But I do remember that the poor man had a long illness and died of a distended belly. It was a painful and drawn out death. Could that be co-incidence?
No comments:
Post a Comment