If the child prince or princess is of the very highest rank, part of the ceremony takes place on an artificial mountain constructed in the court of the palace of strong timberwork and boards, covered so entirely with sheets of pewter gilded that it appears like a beautiful mountain of gold. The one erected a few years ago for the sokan of the eldest daughter of the reigning king—she being also a great grand-daughter of the ex-regent—the princess Sri Wililaxan, was sixty feet high (higher than a four-story building), and had cliffs here and grottoes there, and lakes and waterfalls, and trees with artificial monkeys and birds and serpents, which by concealed machinery were made to move among them as if alive, and winding paths that led to the top, where an elegant gilt pavilion gleamed in the sun.
The ceremonies on this occasion commenced with the chanting of prayers in the hall of state at the palace by twenty-four head priests of the chief temples of the city, and the lighting of “the candle of victory,” a huge wax candle six feet high, which burned day and night till the moment the hair was cut. The next morning these same priests were sumptuously feasted at the palace, and dismissed with presents of priests’ robes, cushions, fans, etc., and another company took their place.
In the afternoon was the first of the grand processions to escort the young princess to the great hall of state where the religious services were held. In the open square in front of this hall seats were provided for six or seven hundred of the nobility to witness the procession, themselves a most brilliant sight in their coats of gold brocade, many sparkling with diamonds. As soon as the king arrived and seated himself in the high pavilion prepared for him a troop of beautiful girls in glittering dresses descended from the golden mountain—from the gilded temple there—and at the base of the mountain, in full view of His Majesty, danced the flower-dance to the sound of native music, waving branches of gold and silver flowers.
Heralded by music, the imposing procession now came on. First there were masked men representing Japanese warriors; then Siamese soldiers in European uniform, with bands of music; then two noblemen, representing celestial messengers, archangels, dressed in all white with gold embroidery, and having crowns on their heads terminating in a long, slender, white spire full eighteen inches high. These led on a hundred more angels with like high-pointed spires on their heads; then came Indian musicians and yet more angels, and then companies of men and boys of all nationalities that were to serve the princess, each in their national costume—first, a troop of Chinese in blue, then of Malays with white turbans, then Anamese, Peguans, Laos, Karens.
And now a pretty sight—more than a hundred children of noblemen dressed in white, with little gold coronets on their topknots and loaded with jewelry, all kept in their places by holding on to a rope drawn tight by strong men before and behind. Trumpeters and drummers in scarlet came next, and Brahmans in white and gold scattering flowers and sprinkling holy water. Men now came on carrying the peculiar standards of royalty: eight had each a sort of many-storied umbrella of gold cloth, the staff fifteen feet high; others carried huge golden curiously-carved fans with long handles, others spears, and one the sword of state. Two pretty damsels, robed and crowned as queens, with bunches of peacock feathers in their hands, followed, and then came the little princess herself, in white robes and wearing a small diadem, seated on a golden throne borne aloft on the shoulders of pages in purple. By her side walked six of the great nobles of the kingdom as archangels, with high white steeple-like crowns, and twelve maids of honor in rich dresses followed, bearing her gold tray of betel, her spittoon, fan and other articles of use; then there were more of the storied umbrellas and huge fans and spear-bearers. Next in the procession walked with lady-like and graceful carriage fifty or more of the king’s wives in ranks of four, all wearing robes of snowy silk reaching to their feet, with scarfs of silver hue, and eight or nine massive gold chains passing over one shoulder and across the breast, as did the scarfs, the other shoulder and arm being left bare. After these came various officials of the harem, and last the female police of the palace.
Following the women of the palace were representatives of women of all the nations living in Siam and near it—Chinese, Japanese, Hindoo, Burmese, Laos, Cochin-Chinese, etc.—each in their national dress, the last in long blue silk coats with orange trousers. These were succeeded by the Siamese servants of the princess—hundreds of lively girls in bright scarfs; after them two white ponies were led by grooms. Then came the men-servants, many hundreds, in white jackets, and a regiment of Siamese soldiers formed the rear-guard.
When the princess reached the pavilion where His Majesty sat, her bearers stopped, and she made homage to her royal father by raising her joined hands above her head. He, rising to receive her, lifted her to his side, and together they passed in to where a relay of priests were chanting prayers. After an hour or so, the princess, coming out, was escorted back to the gate of the inner palace, all going in the same order as that in which they came. These processions were repeated every afternoon for three days.
On the fourth and great day the ceremonies commenced in the morning soon after daybreak, for so the Brahman astrologers had directed. The princess, borne in procession as usual, was taken to the great hall of the palace, and there, precisely at the lucky moment, the lock of hair about which all this ado was made was solemnly cut with scissors by the highest of the princes. Her head was then close shaved with gold, silver and steel razors. The candle of victory was now extinguished. Still clad in white, our little princess was next carried in procession to the foot of the golden mountain and seated on a marble bench in a pool representing the holy lake Anodad. Here the king took five jars—of gold, silver, brass, bronze and stone—and poured holy water over her. She shivered, and almost cried. But the great princes and princesses, and after them the chief of nobles, came up, and each in turn poured water over the poor child with trying deliberation for nearly half an hour. At last she was permitted to retire to a curtained pavilion near and exchange her drenched robes of white for the rich apparel of royalty. The prime minister and the minister of foreign affairs, gorgeously clad as angels, escorted her now up the golden mountain. At the summit an aged uncle of the king and her royal father himself received her. In the pretty temple there she was invested with a crown of solid gold, and then descended in full royal state covered with jewels, and was carried in procession thrice round the mountain, her right hand toward it.
But, lo! a marvelous transformation in the appearance of the procession had now taken place. The angels that had been clad in white now assumed pink or rose tints; the ladies of the palace had golden-colored scarfs instead of silver, and the pretty children that came in white were now seen clothed in pink, with bright red bands around their topknots and coronets, all indicative of the joyous change the clipping of that lock of hair had brought to the royal child.
The morning’s ceremony lasted in all about three hours, and then the princess was borne away to needful rest for a season.