Page:Pearl of Asia (Child JT, 1892).pdf/128

Rh pots for the day's provender and the moon and the dragon seemed to have passed into oblivion, the only evidence of the nocturnal saturnalia being the smoking pyres that had been lighted and the exploded red and white crackers that strewed the ground.

Upon inquiry I learned that it has been the custom of the people of Siam from time immemorial to thus drive off the dragon Rahu and the legend runs thus: According to Buddhistic belief, in a former state of transmigration the sun (AthilAthit [sic]), the moon (ChenChan [sic]), and the Asura Rahu were brothers. They gave alms to the priests, the first on a golden salver, the second in a silver vase and the latter in a black pot, which led to their all being born as angels; the first as angel of the sun, second as angel of the noon and the third as the angel Rahu. The latter, who had been on bad terms with his brethren, sinned and became one of the Asuras, or fallen angels, who were expelled from heaven by Indra, king of the lower heavens, in a drunken state and driven to a region underneath Meru, the central mountain, from which they make continual sallies, vainly attempting to regain their former abode, the most powerful of which is Asura Rahu, who is always known to be abroad by his attempting to swallow the sun and moon, his brothers, which occasions the eclipses; but the rapid motion of these bodies make it impossible for him to hold them for any length of time. At some great Siamese ceremonies one may see an enormous serpent or dragon, made of lamps, ingeniously joined together, and borne about by a number of men, intended to represent Rabu chasing the moon. Conversing with some of the leading Princes