MAN WITH 10,000 WIVES.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 December 1921, Page 11

MAN WITH 10,000 WIVES.

AMAZING FACTS ABOUT ROYAL HOUSEHOLD.

To the average husband who knows the difficulty of maintaining one wife in comfort, the idea of keeping 10,000 would be staggering! For many ages past, however, this has been a common custom of the Kings of .Siam, who had so many ••queens” that it was almost impossible to keep count of them all. As a matter of fact they met some of them only once—at the marriage ceremony. It always has been the rule of the Siamese dynasty for the reigning monarch to spend most of his spare time looking for fresh wives, and no matter how many brides he might choose, there is always accommodation for them in the specially-built city at the back of the Palace at Bankok. The brides are graded into different categories. The late King Chulalongkorn had 10,000 wives. There were three or‘four royal wives, several hujidred wives of noble birth, and some thousands of others. The ceremony of marrying a royal wife takes two or three days, while two days are required for the wedding with one of the second class. One result of the Siamese royal custom has been an enormous number of children. The present king’s grandfather had eighty-six children. His father had three hundred and fifteen daughters and two hundred sons. The effect of Western education has shown itself upon the present King of Siam. He, with ten of his brothers, was educated in England, at Rugby, the while the hundreds of his sisters and other brothers were being cared for at home. When King Vajiravudh—as he is named —ascended the throne, he showed great disinclination to follow the custom of his forefathers. He wanted to marry only one wife. The proposal was greeted with considerable public disfavor; all the marriageable girls in Siam were amazed at the idea that they were to be deprived of the chance of becoming an inmate of the royal household, where a life of idle luxury was assured. In the end, the King had to change his plans. There is a great deal that the King of Siam has to offer a wife. He has twenty palaces, a “Diamond City,” a herd of white elephants, nearly two million pounds’ worth of diamonds, pearls, rubies, and other precious stones, a state barge with a hundred and twenty oarsmen, thousands of other royal barges, a share in twenty-four golden umbrellas, and many other luxuries. Naturally enough it would appear as if confusion might arise in the royal household with so many wives and children. But this is not the case. Everything is so well regulated that the King seldom, if ever, is troubled when any of his sons or daughters are naughty, or if one of his wives disagrees with a few thousands of the others. All the children, and the wives also — are, of course, a great financial burden on the King, although he is theoretically the possessor of all the wealth of the country. The girl children hitherto have not received any more than their clothes, but their demands are growing. The children of the wives who are not of noble birth are not entitled to anything, but they also are becoming more exacting. If a King of Siam, should be unfamiliar with the looks of any of his children it is quite an excusable fault. When a baby is born to a wife a palace functionary announces the news to his Majesty. Although the mother may. be nothing socially, the fact that the King is father makes the baby saored.