Muhong jgn engkau muhong - Black pig Bone

Makin tambah byk muhong depa ni, tapi muhong pi muhong mai dok putag tang tu juga. Muhong lama depa pun kita masih belum dedah habis, depa mula tabur taik muhong baru.

Hari ini mari kita kaji muhong depa yg lepas-lepas, kita tengok salah satu artikel depa bertajuk;

THE DUTCH ON SIAM (1737)

Depa mula dengan..

..Daily Register kept by Theodorus Jacobus van den Heuvel, koopman in the service of the Honourable Company and opperhoofd over its interests in the empire of Siam, on the journey to Prabat, whither he by special order was to follow the King.

Wednesday 6th March 1737-wednesday

Then came the regalia in a gilded vessel as described above, which was followed by two empty ones, as well as the Crown's seal, and finally the King, before whom as well as before the said ornaments.... bla-bla.
Satu perkara yg kita tak berapa suka dgn depa ni ialah, depa suka muhong yang amat mudah utk kita tangkap..muhong la bagi kemas sikit.

Contoh artikel depa tu, ia adalah catatan org Belanda yg merekodkan dgn kemas, siap masuk tarikh dan hari catatan dibuat dari hari ke hari..

Pada tarikh Wednesday 6th March 1737, catatan sebenar adalah berlainan, yg depa kutip ialah tarikh Thursday 7th March 1737, yg 6th March depa skip. Kenapa depa skip?

kita lihat apa catatan pada Wednesday 6th March 1737 yang sebenar:

Wednesday 6th March 1737

Today being the day that the opperhoofd, obeying the order of the King, had to leave for Prabat, two envoys of His Highness came at midday to fetch us at the lodge, namely the oluang tippacdi and simieen bommak, in whose company he set out on the journey up the river, accompanied by the soldijboekhouder Nicolaas Bang, the oppermeester Floris van Essen, the adsistent Pieter Hous, and also two sailors, the opperhoofd sitting alone in one proa and the rest of the band in the Company's ceremonial barge. At midnight we arrived at a pagoda by the name of Watpothaij Maytjeen, where we were obliged to remain in order to greet the King according to the custom of the country, when he sailed by early in the morning on the following day.

Depa skip sebab penulis kata mrk tunggu Raja Siam di Pagoda (Watt.) bernama Watt Pothaij Maytjeen, (Siam Islam sembahyang dlm Watt ka).

Depa ni celapak cedok catatan ini kerana ada tersebut "pedang kecil" lalu terus buat andaian bahawa itulah dia keris. Pelik sungguh sebab terkeliru lagi, depa sedang cerita pasal Siam, bukan Melayu, Keris lambang Melayu, bukan lambang Siam.

Antara lain catatan pengembara Dutch ini yg depa tak mau cedok adalah seperti berikut:

Tuesday 12th March 1737

The oluang raxa sombat was expressly sent by the King to inquire again in the name of His Highness whether we needed anything and also whether we were curious to see the footprint of their god. Should we so wish, we would be compelled to raise our hands before the same, as without doing so nobody, not even the King, could or dare approach. We answered that we would rather leave our curiosity unfulfilled, than to do something that was against our conscience and religion. He then replied: 'Why do you have so much difficulty with it? We think it is godly; the King pays homage to it, then why could you not do so? For the Hollanders worship Christ as also do the Portuguese, and this Christ has been a brother of our god and has gone to Europe; we are prepared to raise our hands before him and to do him homage', adding more of such tomfoolery, all meant to persuade us to follow their impertinence, but the opperhooft begged him to be silent and to refrain from such talk, as we heard it only with great annoyance, because we had a God who taught us that there were no other gods but He and that we therefore could not pay homage to others, without incensing Him in the extreme by contravening His commandments, and that we would rather give our lives than to do such a thing, as it was only a temporary suffering not comparable to [p.59] the eternal punishment which we firmly believe would befall those who would do what our God forbids and dislikes that should be done. Then the oluang raxa sombat changed his tune and said that we were right and that he would convey what we had said to the King. He took his leave and went away.

Seterusnya:

Friday 15th March 1737

...Right in the centre was a cavity or the print of the famous footstep which, as they profess, was left by their god when he departed from earth because of the multiplicity of men's sins and returned to the heaven, being three and a half feet long and near the toes or at its greatest width one foot and a half, narrowing towards the heel like a foot, and four thumbs deep into the rock, around which a rim was built, 3/4 foot high covered with solid gold. Above this footprint was a wooden roofing, which tapered towards the pinnacle of the pagoda, and rested on four pillars of nine to ten feet, similarly well-carved, gilded and inlaid with mirrors, and on their four corners stood little sunshades covered and ornamented with coral beads of all sorts of colours, artfully interwoven and twined. Apart from these, we found in this building no other peculiar ornaments or sculptures, with which their pagodas otherwise are crammed, but as we could not inspect the bottom of the cavity or footprint because of the darkness, the mandarins led us to a table standing against the northern wall, on which lay the cover of this footprint, made of solid gold and engraved with men, animals, fishes, trees and flowers of all sorts, each in a separate pane, all mixed up together.

They said that this was the copy of the sole of the foot, [p.71] made on the express orders of a king now many years ago, who feared that the figures in the rock might wear out on the account of the frequent touching by the hands of men who came there to practice their religion. Then the oluang raxa sombat asked us whether their god should not be considered great, since he had all kinds of animate and inanimate creatures under his feet, to which we replied with silence. They also showed us several small pyramids of ivory, which had been turned by the king himself, as well as little mats, very beautifully and artfully made by the queens by intertwining beaten gold and silver threads. We requested that we might take our leave, but this could not be, and with hungry stomachs--as it was well past noon-- on the express orders of the king we had to watch the female court dancers dancing until 3 o'clock in the afternoon, which did little to entertain us, although we were now better protected from the sun than on the 13th ultimo, for the king had, unknown to us, on that day watched our suffering and had begun to feel sorry and had ordered a sunshield to be made, which was otherwise not allowed. And we concluded this day--after we had hastily eaten something-- with awaiting the king as before until 7 o'clock in the evening near the pagoda of Prabat, where everything passed as had been said at the beginning, except that now only limes with silver foeang, not golden ones, were strewn amongst the people...

Masjid Siam Islam beginikah keadaannya?

Berkaitan dengan org Dutch, mereka telah diberi penempatan oleh raja Siam kerana pernah menolong Siam dlm peperangan Siam-Patani:

..The Dutch trading post was located about two kilometres south of Ayutthaya on the east bank of the Chao Phraya River. The Dutch were given this piece of land in 1634 by King Prasat Thong (r. 1629-1656), after the VOC had sent ships to help Ayutthaya in a war against Pattani. The construction was ready in 1636. The post continued to serve its purpose until the end of the Company's presence in Ayutthaya in 1765. During Van den Heuvel's absence in March 1737, the post remained under the command of the second in rank, the onderkoopman (junior merchant) Willem de Ghij, who was to be Van den Heuvel's successor as opperhoofd in 1740. In 1732, the territory of the Company accommodated 240 families, in total 1,443 men, women and children: VOC 2239, Siam 3rd part, Daily register Ayutthaya 1731-1732, p.39 (1732 May 5)....

Malah depa ni masih muhong dgn merujuk buku itu, buku ini terutama buku DGE Hall padahal depa mereka-reka sendiri. Sekarang ni tamra atau kitab muktamad depa ialah UUK. Kitab itu tak ada kene mengena dgn Siam sikit pun.