"5
appears ia a costly dress, sitting on a magrr.Scisnt
gilded throne and wearing the royal crown/1
When the Siamese king does come out of the
palace, his Tamraai or Batnbco-bearers preceed
him in files of two and proclaim the coming of the
king. All people prostrate before the king, who
is followed by a band of musicians. The king goes in
a palanquen, followed by his body-guards.
It is the custom of the Siamese royal house that
every year the king proceeds on a holy pilgrimage
at the end of October or in the beginning of Novem-
ber. The king is L followed by his whole court, and
all the mandarins, tobies and officers of the country.'
With great pomp and splendour, the king thus goes to
pay a visit to the principal Wat or temple.
It is said that ' about six to seven thousand per-
sons participate in this ceremony, but only His
Majesty, his wives, his children, his brother, the
four highest bishops and other priests enter the
temple.' The king enters the temple with bare foot,
candles and incerese are lighted. He takes flowers
and tapers in his hands and kneels uttering some
prayers. With his cloth spread, he bows down
three times to the images and also to the superior.
All this time, ' the streets are very corwded with
people from the palace to the temple, but every one
is lying with folded hands and the head bent to the
earth. It is forbidden to any ooe to look at the
1. J. S. S. VII, I, p. 21.