Maseng (Small Snake)

The Brahmajati, the Thai book of destiny, reads a child’s future from the year of birth. Its method is the Chinese “fate calculation”, which the Thai may well have known since at least the thirteenth century, when they adopted the twelve-animal cycle; Indian learning added the planets of the week and the picture of the body as a small universe. Quaritch Wales, who called for a representative selection of the manuscripts in the National Library in Bangkok to satisfy himself of the general authenticity of the printed editions, notes that the text reflects old Siam: a freeman served a feudal patron, Brahmans were greatly respected, and slavery was finally abolished only about 1900. The portent for the month of birth can often be virtually the opposite of that for the day, and that is just what appeals to the Thai reader: one can be set off against the other, leaving, of course, a favourable balance.

According to the Brahmajati, for one born in the year of the Small Snake Venus is the mouth: kindly spoken, but apt to be adulterous. The Sun is the heart: likely to tell lies; not reliable. Mercury is the loins: will have enough carnal desire. Saturn and Moon are the hands: quick workers. Mars and Jupiter are the feet: will like travel.

The person should prosper, but at 56 will have a misfortune.

5th, 6th or 7th month: a lord Snake, element lightning. Probably a good person.

8th, 9th or 10th month: a quick-eyed cobra, element slow fire. Hard-hearted and very intelligent.

11th, 12th or 1st month: a lai sap snake, element fire in stone. Good-hearted and kindly disposed.

2nd, 3rd or 4th month: a green Snake, element fire in crystal. Good-hearted, and will be successful.

Sunday: a Snake that flees fire and enters water. Trouble likely.

Monday: a Snake ensconced in a hole. Happy and trouble-free.

Tuesday: a Snake fleeing a forest fire. Poor and troubled.

Wednesday: a common Snake. Difficult to rear; unfavourable.

Thursday: a guardian Snake living in a golden cave. Lucky, and will succeed.

Friday: a Snake guarding riches. A wealthy miser.

Saturday: an adulterous Snake. Man or woman, will have illicit relations.

A simpler system, very popular in the illustrated manuscripts, uses the year only as a calendar and trusts in numbers. The months are taken in pairs, beginning with months 5 and 11, each with a day of the week, or two days in the first case, to accommodate the odd seventh day (the days are numbered from Sunday, day 1). One looks up both the month and the day of birth: if both are good, very good; if one is good and one bad, take the mean; only if both are bad is the outlook truly depressing.

Month 5 or 11, or day 1 or 7: will be powerful and do good government work, but liable to fits of anger from which recovery is slow.

Month 6 or 12, or day 2: a young man followed by an umbrella-bearer. Fortunate from youth on, with parents to lean on, and many slaves.

Month 7 or 1, or day 3: a person wearing a cangue. Will get into trouble and others will seek to harm; or apt to suffer from fever. Not good.

Month 8 or 2, or day 4: a man seated on a throne, with umbrella-bearers and fan-wavers. Highly prosperous, enjoying every kind of happiness.

Month 9 or 3, or day 5: a mahout riding an elephant. Very poor, working till the sweat runs down, or must seek a better patron.

Month 10 or 4, or day 6: a man riding a nāga. An active-minded person, firm and never accepting defeat. If in government service, will do well.

The Treatise of the Seven Numbers trusts only the power of seven numbers. For the year of birth its seven classes are death, patron, fate, wealth, travel, and private and state employment. The years go in pairs, but the Small Snake stands alone: only it and the Horse are not paired.

Death: will die exhausted, on behalf of a great man. Patron: miserable, because the patron sought does not want one. Fate: unable to help others. Wealth: will obtain money from a young girl. Travel: will travel afar, and talk about it. Employment: likely to serve a patron of only middling rank; not suitable for official work.

The Thai treatises judge a marriage in several ways. One compares the birth elements, with metal always counted as iron: most pairs are favourable, and only the unfavourable ones are listed. Another treatise looks at the animals of the two birth years: from it a girl could learn what her suitor would become if he married her. Quaritch Wales prints it in full because it gives an illuminating picture of the range of social positions theoretically open to anyone of the freeman class, and concludes that what a man makes of his life work depends in part on his wife.

According to one well-known system, marriages between men and women are favourable only for a few pairs of years, because for many people mixed marriages are contemplated between humans and partners who are actually devatā or demons (yakṣa or yakṣī) in disguise: a thought that is second nature to a Thai reader raised on the Ramakien.

• A man of a fire year, with a woman of: water, earth, wood
• A woman of a fire year, with a man of: metal (iron)

Birth elements: most combinations are favourable, and only the unfavourable ones are listed. Metal always counts as iron.

• Chuat (Rat): fish trader (not good; should stop)
• Chalu (Ox): low official
• Khan (Tiger): goldsmith
• Tho (Hare): Brahmā-devatā
• Marong (Large Snake): rich man
• Maseng (Small Snake): elephant keeper
• Mamia (Horse): rich man
• Mamae (Goat): noble
• Wok (Monkey): good man
• Raka (Rooster): devatā
• Cho (Dog): noble
• Kun (Pig): commoner

Birth animals: what the husband is likely to be. From this table a girl could learn her suitor’s future position, if he married her.

• A man and a woman, favourable only with these years: Tho (Hare), Kun (Pig)
• A man and a yakṣī, at best moderate, happy at first, then as likely to end in hatred: Khan (Tiger), Cho (Dog)

Mixed marriages: for many people, a partner may actually be a devatā or a demon (yakṣa, yakṣī) in disguise; and since none of them is immortal, they too follow the fortunes of their year of birth.