The Siamese twins, Chang and Eng : a biographical sketch.

Date:
[1869]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Siamese twins, Chang and Eng : a biographical sketch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/28 (page 6)
    G cheerfully conformed had they been born in Siam and always living thore, is worthy of mention. The Siamese wife is a slave to her hus- band. It is seldom she goes with him abroad, but when that favor is granted, she walks at some distance in the rear. She does not eat with him, but, crouched on knees and elbows, serves him at the table. This is the wife’s condition among the aristocracy. In the humbler orders, her subjection is not so abject; and not unfrequently she is treated with affection. The ruling classes have a plurality of wives. Some have a number that would make even Brigham Young stare in wonder. But among the common people, it is seldom that one man has more than one wife. Where there is more than one, the wife first married is mistress of the household. THEIR NATIVE TOWN. Not far from the mouth of the Menam, where it empties directly into the Gulf of Siam, is the town of Meklong. It is situated near a small river of the same name—a river which in the rainy season opens Siam to the Kingdom of Burmah. This town, of about thirteen thous- and inhabitants, gave the world Chang and Eng. The Twins were born in Meklong, in the year A. D. 1811. The monstrosity of a liga- ment of flesh uniting the body of one near the end of the breast-bone, to a corresponding place in the body of the other, at once called atten- tion to the infants. The mother suffered no unusual pain. Her strange progeny lived with her till they were eighteen years of age—the father having died when they were eight years old. In the year 1829, an enterprising American, Captain Coffin, conceived the notion of taking them to the United States. An agreement was entered into with the mother, whereby, within a period of less than two years, they should be returned to their native home. They were then taken by the American navigator to the land which for forty years has been their home—the point of departure and return in their numerous and extended visits to all parts of the civil- ized world. It was by their own option that they did not return to Siam. A biographical sketch of Chang and Eng comprises, for the most part, the particulars of their numerous journeys, and their domestic life in North Carolina. Yet their history in Siam, up to the date of their departure for America, has not a few interesting particulars. THEIR LIFE IN SIAM. Wo have had occasion to say that they were bom in 1811. This was in the month of May. The mother had in all nine children, of whom four were older, and three younger, than Chang and Eng; but none others were twins, and only two remained alive when Chang and Eng left home—one brother and one sister. When their father died,