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Updated: May 27, 2025
It is also said that the women then adopted the same dress as the men, the panung, a garment something like the sarong but drawn up in the middle, front and back. The cutting of the hair and the peculiar garb make it difficult to tell the Siamese women from the men. The style is distinctive with the women, as all of the surrounding people the Burmans, Laos, and Malays wear the sarong.
The Chinese, of which there are large numbers, are usually buried, but in case of a mixed marriage the children are cremated. There are many superstitions. A peculiar one in court circles is the wearing of a different-colored panung each day of the week, on Sunday, red; Monday, cream; Tuesday, purple; and so on, for good luck.
It is admirably adapted to the climate, being easy to wash and easy to put on: all that is necessary is to wind it about the waist, pass the ends between the legs, and tuck them into the girdle, thus producing the effect of a pair of knickerbockers. As both sexes wear the panung, and likewise wear their hair cut short, it is somewhat difficult to distinguish between men and women.
But this quaint practise is no longer followed. It was not popular with the merchants. The Siamese, like all Orientals, place much reliance on omens, the position of the lower hem of the panung worn by the Minister of Agriculture on this occasion indicating, it is confidently believed, the sort of weather to be expected during the ensuing year.
If the edge of the panung comes down to the ankles a dry season is anticipated, even a drought, perhaps. If, on the contrary, the garment is pulled up to the knees a raining-in-London effect, as it were, it is freely predicted that the country will suffer from floods.
The panung a strip of silk or cotton about three yards long is the national garment of Siam and among the poorer classes constitutes the only article of clothing.
The dress and undress in Siam afforded variety, the men and women nearly alike, for, as stated in the description in connection with Ayuthia, the women have short hair and wear the panung precisely like the men. The guides in Siam are not very competent, and could give us only ordinary information, so there was little for us to do but to speculate on certain points.
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