Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/504

 The splashing and dashing of the water is attended with great hilarity, terminating in a noisy romp.

As we turn homeward from this scene can we refrain from praying, "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly, and reveal thyself to these poor benighted ones"? In the evening, as we stand again on the veranda, looking at the sunset, we see on the opposite side of the river a number of men and women busily gathering up sand and putting it into baskets. You are astonished when I tell you that this sand is carried to the temple-grounds and thrown into piles known as sand-gods, and a kind of worship is offered to them. As the night comes on the people scatter away to their homes; the noisy tumult subsides, leaving a quiet hush which we welcome most gratefully. But hark! that deep, heavy ''thud! thud!'' in the distance. What is it? It is the beating of the great drums which are hung in the temple-grounds, to awaken or notify their gods that an offering is about to be made. You will hear them at intervals through the night, even into the morning watches.

When the sun goes from you in America this evening it will rise upon the poor Laos people to awaken them to some of their many forms of idolatry.