Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/209

 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