Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/348

 consisting of the consuls of the different treaty powers with their suites, the officers of H. B. M.'s gunboat Avon and a few others. The writer held at the time the seals of the United States consulate, and was the only representative of our government in the kingdom, and consequently received an invitation, which might not have been accorded to him as a mere missionary. The company of Siamese present was equally small, consisting only of the chief princes and nobles of the kingdom. The hour named was six, but owing to some delay it was nearly eight when we passed into a small triangular court facing one of the doors of the inner audience-hall. In front of the door of the hall stood an elevated platform richly gilded, and upon that platform was placed a very large golden basin. Within that basin was a golden tripod or three-legged stool. Over the platform was a quadrangular canopy, and over the canopy was the nine-storied umbrella, tapering in the form of a pagoda. Over the centre of the canopy was a vessel containing consecrated water, said to have been prayed over nine times and poured through nine different circular vessels before reaching the top of the canopy. This water is collected from the chief rivers of Siam and at a point above tidal influence, and is constantly kept on hand in reservoirs near the temples in the capital. In the vessel was placed a tube or