Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/350

 siphon, representing the pericarp of the lotus-flower after the petals have fallen off.

At a flourish of crooked trumpets resembling rams' horns the king elect descended from the steps of the hall, arrayed in a simple waist-cloth of white muslin, with a piece of the same material thrown over his shoulders, and took his seat upon the tripod in the basin. A Brahman priest approached him and offered him some water in a golden lotus-shaped cup, into which he dipped his hand and rubbed it over his head. This was the signal for the pulling of a rope and letting loose the sacred water above in the form of a shower-bath upon his person. This shower-bath represents the Tewadas, or Buddhist angels, sending blessings upon His Majesty. A Buddhist priest then approached and poured a goblet of water over his person. Next came the Brahman priests and did the same. Next came the chief princes, uncles of the king; next two aged princesses, his aunts. The vessels used by these princes and princesses were conch-shells tipped with gold. Then came the chief nobles, each with a vessel of different material, such as gold, silver, pinchbeck, earthenware; then, last of all, the prime minister with a vessel of iron. This finished the royal bath.

He then descended from the stool in a shivering state, and was divested of his wet clothes and arrayed in regal robes of golden cloth studded