As a rule the magistrates and the higher officials do not take more than one wife, but this moderation is due to motives of economy. They wish to give the impression that they are so busy with state affairs that they have no time to give to their own pleasures. However they keep large numbers of concubines which make up for the fact of their only keeping one wife. Marriage is a life-institution, but divorce is so common that marriage appears to be but a passing fancy. When a woman is convicted of adultery the husband can inflict whatever punishment he thinks fit. Funerals are occasions of festivity rather than of mourning. The priests are well paid and are magnificently entertained. They contribute tears and funeral dirges and point out the road to the heavenly mansions to the spirit of the deceased. In the grave are placed offerings of money. It is to be presumed that the priests, as owners of the graves put the wealth buried by ignorance into circulation again. It should be noticed that the trade of this country has suffered from the various revolutions. In former times its products were taken to Siam, but since the Burmese invasion, they have been diverted to Pegu. The hatred inspired by the continuous state of hostility between these two nations has driven trade to Cambodia where the Laosians find a ready market for their gums, lacquer and other articles. This ignorant nation boasts that it taught the Siamese the art of writing on palm leaves; the language and the characters are similar, but the Laosians cannot pronounce the letters R. and L. It is said that in the olden time, their mode of worship was unmixed with superstitious beliefs. They had no temples but worshipped a Creator god who ruled the world, and who could only be pleased by the practice of virtue and not by sacrifice and ceremony. They believe that after the lapse of a certain number of centuries, the universe will be renewed. This idea of a Periodical Great Year has been adopted by nearly all the nations of old time. Commercial intercourse with the Chinese has altered these simple beliefs. They had priests who became legislators and who, in order to avoid the risk of having their arguments refuted, produced books written in foreign characters. As their teachings were not understood, they appeared to be highly mysterious and were greatly respected, and it was no difficult matter for these cunning impostors to attribute a divine origin to their doctrinal hypotheses. Their learned men are divided into three classes. Some teach how the universe and the gods have been created, but they base their arguments on fables and not on facts. Others who are styled 'the enlightened' reconcile all embarrassing questions and contradictory statements.