y, September
20th, the three following days being included in the festival.
Everywhere the city is a blaze of red and white bunting, and at night it
is brilliant with myriad lights, presenting a fairylike scene. About
this time the Foreign Office gives its annual ball, a brilliant occasion
for which invitations are in great demand.

Siamese ceremonies are quite as peculiar as their feasts. The habit of
cutting the long tuft of hair, which is left on children's heads until
they have attained their growth, is very striking, and at the royal
palace very elaborate preparations are made, which include religious
ceremonies and the use of a golden jewelled instrument resembling
shears.

In Siam cremation is the general way of disposing of the dead. Among the
wealthy classes the body is embalmed and kept sometimes three years
before the ceremony, which is conducted with great pomp and on a very
expensive plan, gifts being distributed among all the attendant friends
and sums of money given to the priests and to the poor. The Chinese, of
which there are large numbers, are usually buried, but in case of a
mixed marriage the children are cremated.

There are many superstitions. A peculiar one in court circles is the
wearing of a different-colored panung each day of the week,--on Sunday,
red; Monday, cream; Tuesday, purple; and so on,--for good luck. Another
is the use of buttons adorned with representations of animals,
symbolical of the year in which certain persons are born,--this also for
good luck. The tendency naturally leads to great respect being shown to
fortune-tellers. The youth of Siam are, however, it is said, outgrowing
this superstitious condition.

One time-honored custom is, however, in greater vogue than ever, and
that is massage, which is employed by all classes.

While the foreign residents of Bangkok are not large in number, they
have made their impress felt, and in no way more markedly than in the
amusements which they have inaugurated. There are sixteen organizations,
many of them recreation clubs for golf, tennis, and cricket, but there
are also a literary club, a dramatic club, a Philharmonic Society, and a
gymnasium. Bangkok has a good library, containing books of travel,
reference, and fiction.

Racing is popular and is generally attended by the King, who gives gold
cups for prizes. Hunting is in great favor, for game can be found near
Bangkok, and at not a remote distance lurk the rhinoceros, buffal