yield to the will of the domineering Chang, and their mother sometimes had to step in.
When they were 8 years old their father died, and they had to work to support their mother and their ten brothers and sisters...
When they reached the age of ten, the new king, Rama III, sent for them, and their mother schooled them in the protocol observed in audiences with kings. There the king put to them a few questions about their upbringing and their family. Suddenly the curtains were drawn back, the veils were lifted, and several faces peered out from behind them to gaze at the twins; they started, seized with fear and alarm, but the king soothed them and sent them to his 70 wives so that they might see them, and there the wives lavished precious gifts upon them.
A few years later, when the king sent a special mission to Indochina, Chang and Eng were among its members, and they conducted themselves well.
In 1824 "Robert Hunter" saw them swimming and was persuaded that they were some strange sea-creature; but after learning the truth about them, he set about convincing their mother to let them travel abroad to trade and make money. The mother refused — yet he traveled with them to Europe, and there he began exhibiting them to spectators, amassing ample money thereby... Everyone marveled at their free, natural movements: they could lie back to back, and they could run and jump, ride horses, and turn over in bed...
And they were content with themselves and with others...
When a psychologist examined them, he announced to the public that the twins' dreams were different, and so were their nervous systems. The one thing they had in common was this band that joined them: if the band was pricked with a pin, each of them felt the pain of the prick...
Despite their immersion in the business of the show, they
remained good-natured, exceedingly alert and quick-witted. They proposed that a one-eyed spectator should pay half the price, since he could not see and behold exactly what the others saw and beheld!!... As for the crippled and the lame, they used to give them gifts and money, thanking God for having given them, the twins, four feet and four arms...
The twins never returned to Siam after their tour. They spent the remainder of their lives in America, apart from a few passing journeys abroad... And it remained beyond many people to grasp their inner nature and sound their depths, for they looked upon them only as a marvel, and not as two reasoning, perceptive human beings...
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