TALAPOINS or TALOPINS, priests of Siam.—They enjoy great privileges, but are enjoined celibacy and austerity of life. They live in monasteries contiguous to the temples; and what is singular, any one may enter into the priesthood, and after a certain age may quit it to marry, and return to society. There are talapoinesses too, or nuns, who live in the same convents, but are not admitted till they have passed their fortieth year. The talapoins educate children; and at every new and full moon explain the precepts of their religion in their temples; and during the rainy season they preach from six in the morning till noon, and from one in the afternoon till five in the evening. They dress in a very mean garb, go bareheaded and barefooted; and no person is admitted among them who is not well skilled in the Baly language.

They believe that the universe is eternal; but admit that certain parts of it, as this world, may be destroyed and again regenerated. They believe in a universal pervading spirit, and in the immortality and transmigration of the soul; but they extend this last doctrine, not only to all animals, but to vegetables and rocks. They have their good and evil evil genii, and particular local deities, who preside over forests and rivers, and interfere in all sublunary affairs.

For the honour of human nature, we are happy to find so pure a system of morality prevail among these people: It not only forbids its followers to do ill, but enjoins the necessity of doing good, and of stifling every improper thought or criminal desire.

Those who wish to peruse a more particular account of the talapoinos, may consult Voyage de M. de la Loube; Sketches relating to the History, &c. of the Hindoos; or Payne's Geography.