Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/266

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purse. To every chief priest he gives a complete suit, and to every other priest some important part of a suit, if not the whole. Besides the yellow robes, the king has also in readiness vast provisions of bedsteads, fully furnished with mosquito-bars, mattresses, pillows, towels, spittoons, betel-boxes, cigar-cases, rice-kettles, lacquered trays, lamps, candles, boats with little houses on them, and other articles which the priests need in their daily calling. These articles he distributes to them every day.

Another performance, usually more exciting than all the rest, is the daily scattering of money broadcast among the thousands that have assembled there for the sport. The king takes personally a very lively part in it. The money and jewelry are usually imbedded in little green limes or small balls of wood, to prevent them from getting lost among the crowd. His Majesty, standing in his temporary palace-door, having bushels of limes at his feet, each charged with one piece of money, taking up a handful at a time, throws them, often so guiding his hand as that some peculiar favorite shall have the best chance in the game—some corpulent prince whom he wishes to set into ludicrous motion by his efforts to catch the flying prize. To show proper respect, every one, whether prince or prime minister or consul or missionary, must exert himself to catch His Majesty's gifts while flying, and must go