left the fire for three to six months, if it is the year of the dog, then theppheepaksee and asunonthapaksee arise.1 234 The year of the pig is the time for kaalapaksee and asunonpaksee nonthapaksee and saang chon are severe; kaalapaksee, saang daeng, and Zsaangl ninlapat develop; and theppheepaksee, saang fai pathommakan, and asunonthapaksee are severe and spread. They say that the infant called mahatsaruup, with the large crown, swollen penis, and testes hanging down, has no khamao or taan saang while by the fire. Haritaruup, with the line on the crown of the head, develops slight khamao at the tip of the tongue after leaving the fire. This is called male saang daeng. ^ Athitsaruup has a sunken fontanelle. Saang develops while by the fire, then is hidden. It is very difficult to cure. The manutsaruup baby gets saang chon. While the mother is pregnant, she craves for fishy and meaty food, and this makes the infant thin and dehydrated when it is from three to six months old. This is very hard to cure. The saang of mahatsaruup is saang nin; of athitsaruup, male saang daeng; and of amanutsaruup, it is saang chon. These eight types of saang affect all infants.5
1 theppheepaksee irifhln® a form of children’s disease characterized by disordered digestion, cold hands and feet, and feverish head. M e , p. 422.
asunonthapaksee aäwumTn'S- also spelt asunonpaksee 0^4un'iTn'& the meaning is unclear, but this is another disease of children. See paksee, p. 26, note 3.
2 kaalapaksee nnvkTn& another disease of children, meaning black paksee. Kaalarok nnflltR > black disease,
is bubonic plague. These names might be synonymous.
3 pathommakan or prathommakan ‘UssmjnFnJ.
See pp. 31; 46, note 1; 48; 49.
4 Meaning that there is a male and a female form of the disease, not one for boys and one for girls. See also pp. 49, 55.
5 That is, all infants are affected by saang in one of these eight forms. The number ’8 ’ is a misprint, as the 1871 text gives ’9 ’. Neither is correct. There are five kinds of saang mentioned, perhaps for four paksee are here counted as saang. The number of varieties of saang varies in different parts of the text, and there is not always a clear distinction between saang meaning children’s disease, and saang meaning birth saang. See p. 41.
The Forms of Saang KPC III, 1; 138.
... Jivaka Koraarabhacca came to the place of the ascetic Nalayadäbasa, and asked him about diseases. Nalayadäbasa replied that various diseases occur in new-born infants. There are three main kinds of sa a n g, which are subdivided into fourteen types.^ The three main kinds are saang of birth, saang c h o n,2 and saang of the mae s u e.3 The
fourteen types are the saang of the seven days Cof the weekD, which are the birth sa a n g, plus seven kinds of minor sa a n g, making a total of fourteen types. As for the mae s u e, there are seven types of mae sue of birth, and 24 types of mae sue chon Csee note 3 aboveD, altogether 31 types. There are twelve kinds of saphan of birth,^ and another seven kinds of saphan chon Rähü,J a total of nineteen types. And these are the diseases which occur in all infants.^123
1 This seems to be at variance with what follows. If the three main kinds of saang are birth sa a n g, saang chon rv , and saang of the mae sue iuj& j , then there are 45 sub
divisions - seven birth sa a n g, seven saang chon rs , seven mae sue of birth, and 24 mae sue chon rs . This leaves the nineteen types of saphan äswu unaccounted for. It is possible that the original statement has become confused. Perhaps the three main kinds of saang were saang of birth, with its minor varieties (see note 3 below); saang of the mae s u e, with its minor varieties; and saang of the saphan of birth, with its minor varieties, the saphan Rahu. This gives a total of fourteen plus 31 plus nineteen = 64 forms of saang. It would be easy to read the number 14 instead of 64 from Thai handwriting, and this is possibly what has happened.
2 saang chon Rr means saang of a type said sometimes to occur during or following the course of birth saang. Each kind of birth saang has its own distinctive form of saang chon rt
To avoid confusion with one of the birth saang called saang chon Irs , the term 1saang chon' rv is called 'minor sa a n g' in this thesis. Similarly, mae sue chon becomes minor mae sue and saphan chon rs Rahu is translated as minor saphan of Rahu. These minor forms could be called complications of the main diseases. See also p. 79, note 2.
3 mae sue are usually considered to be guardian spirits of children, and to do some good for them. (DT, Bangkok, personal communication.) But, as this text shows, they sometimes harm babies by making them ill. This unwelcome behaviour of mae sue is clearly illustrated in 'Inscription No. 1' in the pavilion of the mae sue , amongst the medical inscriptions at Wat Pho, in Bangkok. See Tamraa p h e s a t,
pp. 98, 99. In this invocation th e mae sue are propitiated with offerings of food and drink, and are told 'We have already sought to buy the children for 33 cowries each, to redeem them from the bondage of the spirits after three days, to become human children on the fourth day'. Phya Anuman Rajadhon has