Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/211

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now seen clothed in pink, with bright red bands around their topknots and coronets, all indicative of the joyous change the clipping of that lock of hair had brought to the royal child.

The morning's ceremony lasted in all about three hours, and then the princess was borne away to needful rest for a season.

In the afternoon another ceremony was performed—the "weean teean," or encircling with candles, of which mention has been made before. Borne to the hall of state in procession, the princess, in rich costume, was seated on a central throne, between two bai-sees, which in this case were five-storied piles of round golden trays successively diminishing in size toward the top, looking like circular flower-stands, each containing cooked rice-cakes, scented oil and flour, young cocoanuts and bananas—all surmounted by a bouquet of flowers. Near her sat her royal father. All around the hall were the princes and nobles and ladies of rank seated in a circle. Two chiefs of the Brahmans standing near the bai-sees lighted in succession fifteen large wax candles set in gold, silver and crystal candlesticks, and handed them one by one to the highest in rank present, who with a wave of his hand guided the flame toward the princess and passed the candle on to the next, who did the same. At the same time others of the Brahmans were beating their peculiar drums with a wild burst of