All being ready, the king takes electric fire—which had been preserved for such purposes for a long time—and touches it to the end of the match at his feet. This kindles a flame in the midst of the wood. Immediately the next in rank among the princes steps up and lays his large wax candle, lighted from a lamp burning in the same lightning fire, among the wood or on the top of it as seems to him most convenient. The next prince in order of rank does the same, and all the nobles and lords lay their wax candles among the wood. The rank-order is soon lost in the hurry of the many who wish to contribute their candles before it shall be too late. Hundreds of wax candles, great and small, are laid on the wood ere the burning has advanced too far to admit any more.
To prevent the flames from becoming too intense for the safety of the P’ramene and its appendages, strong men armed with long-handled dippers are dashing water whenever and wherever required; there are others armed with iron pokers, whose business it is to stir the fire occasionally. The moment the wood is fired the funeral bands strike up their dirges and the company of mourning women set up their wailing. This continues only a few minutes. The time occupied in the burning is not more than one hour.
TOMB OF A BONZE.
The fire is extinguished before all the bones have been reduced to ashes. A few of the remaining coals of the bones are carefully collected and deposited in a neat and very precious gold urn. By the time this is done the sun is set, and the P’ramene is left in a despoiled state until next morning. Nevertheless, the hall is lighted and all the usual exercises go on through the night as before. Early the next morning the Pra Bencha pyramid is restored to its original splendor and the little golden urn of precious coal is placed on its summit.
All the ashes left by the burning are put in clean white muslin and laid in a golden platter. They are then ceremoniously carried in state to the royal landing, and, escorted by a procession of state barges, attended by the funeral bands, carried down the river about a mile and there committed to its waters.
The funeral obsequies of a king are continued three days after the burning, and the ceremonies are almost the same as those in anticipation of it until the last day. On that day a royal procession is formed, somewhat like that of the first day, to bear the charred remains in the little golden urn to a sacred depository of such relics of the kings of Siam within the royal palace. Very soon after this the servants of the king gather up all the articles which it is customary to preserve for future funeral occasions—viz. the permanent gold and silver stands, the golden canopy and the ornaments of the pyramid. But the timber of which the P’ramene and its appendages are made is taken down and converted to other uses, usually the building of Buddhist temples.[1]
Funerals Among the People.
These very costly funerals of the royal family and nobility are not possible, of course, among the common people. The priests, however, are generally sent for to attend the dying, and when there sprinkle the suffering one with holy water, recite passages from their sacred books and pronounce the name of Buddha repeatedly.