Ma Huan also writes that the Chinese were initially puzzled when they heard a gentle tinkling sound whenever upper-class Thai men walked about. They learned that there was a custom of inserting hollow tin and gold beads into their foreskin and scrotum. The hollow beads had tiny grains of sand that made the tinkling sound. Ma Huan wrote that it looked ‘liked a cluster of grapes’ and was ‘a most curious thing’. One can only be grateful that this custom died out and did not survive to become a modern fashion craze.
