Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/517

 is a combination of agonizing sounds which for harshness cannot perhaps be excelled. The spirits seem to have thirsted for a year, for the fair dancers make frequent visits to the whiskey, and even affectionately take a bottle in each hand and dance around with them, never neglecting to administer to the insatiable thirst of the spirit. After attaining to an advanced stage of intoxication the dancers array themselves in the costumes provided for the spirits—usually articles of men's clothing—and, arming themselves with swords and spears, they stagger after intruders or acquaintances, who, if caught, must engage in the dance. This unseemly revelry continues from early morn until dark, the Laos band rendering the one favorite air without ceasing, except to take an occasional draught of the beverage sacred to the spirits.

While the Laos believe that the universe is controlled by spirits, their belief in magic implies that certain persons can command the services of some of the spirits to accomplish the darkest designs. No superstition is more general throughout Siam and Laos than the belief in magic. Among the Laos it is supposed that a sorcerer can command a spirit to assume the form of an insect, which, flying against the person whose destruction is intended, enters him and is transformed usually into a buffalo hide, though it may assume after entering the body of