Chang and Eng Bunker Quotes (1811-1874)

“You swear you fraid o' me; you fraid I kill you, shoot you—at same time you know I have guns—you see I shoot you if I choose—nd you keep round me—you wont let me go away—you call me and my mother hard name—and yet you swear you fraid I kill you. Now, suppose I see a man in my country, in Siam—he goes out into wood, and sees a lion asleep—he say, "Oh! I fraid that lion kill me"—what I think of that man if he go up and give that lion a kick and say get out you ugly beast? I wish you'd answer me that.”

“Visitor: I beg pardon, gentlemen, for calling you boys—but really that is the title by which you are generally considered is it not?
Chang and Eng: Never in England—in this country sometimes.
Visitor: But why not England?
Chang: Boy is a boy there—a servant boy—cook boy—school boy—
Eng: And a young gentleman is a young gentleman.
Visitor: Well, I am glad you have set me right in this matter—my mistake was of the head, not of the heart.
Chang: Oh yes, I dare say—people don't think when they speak of the Siamese twins that they are young men twenty years of age.
Eng: Suppose you call a young gentleman of you acquaintance, boy—won't he resent the insult?
Visitor: True—true—and why should not the Siamese young gentlemen resent such an epithet?”