_FIRST HAIR-CUTTING OF A YOUNG SIAMESE._
The attention of the traveler as he passes in his boat along the
rivers and canals of Siam, in town or country, is often arrested by
the sound of music proceeding from beneath an extemporized awning in
front of some dwelling by the wayside. There a promiscuous crowd have
gathered and are witnessing a theatrical performance, the actors and
actresses with chalked faces or hideous masks and in glittering and
fantastic attire. The centre of attraction, however, is manifestly a
pretty child of a dozen summers or so, richly attired and fairly
overlaid with jewelry――necklaces, gold chains, armlets, bracelets and
anklets.
A hair-cutting festival is in progress――a _kone-chook_, as it is
called, the ceremonies and the gayeties that attend the first clipping
of the cherished topknot on the child’s head. This is the great
occasion in the life of the child, and indeed second only to that of a
wedding or a funeral in the life of the family. The Siamese in shaving
the heads of their children, as they do from their earliest infancy,
always leave a small circular lock of hair on the top of the head to
be untouched by razor or shears till the child is eleven, thirteen, or
fifteen years old. Were it to be cut at an earlier day or without the
customary ceremonies, the parents would fear their child would become
insane or a prey to a kind of demon they call a _yak_. This lock grows
a foot or so long, and is kept oiled and neatly twisted into a knot.
Through this a gilt or golden large-headed hairpin three inches long
is thrust, and not unfrequently a garland of fragrant white flowers is
worn around it, giving young Siamese children quite a pretty
appearance.
[Illustration: REMOVAL OF THE TUFT OF A YOUNG SIAMESE.]
When the right year has arrived and the lucky day for the hair-cutting
has been fixed by the astrologers, the friends of the family are
invited, and a band of play-actors engaged and a company of Buddhist
priests, and for a day or two there is a constant round of
prayer-chanting, play-acting and feasting of priests and friends. The
ceremonies begin with the priests chanting in chorus their prayers,
seated cross-legged on mats on an elevated platform, a thread of white
cotton yarn passing from their hands around the clasped hands of the
kneeling child and back to them again, serving as a sort of electric
conductor to the child of the benefits their prayers evoke. The next
morning, when the auspicious moment arrives, the man of highest rank
among the guests with shears clips off the long-cherished lock, and
the head is close shaved for the first time; and then the child,
dressed in white, is led to an elevated seat under a canopy of white
cloth and consecrated water is poured freely over it, first by the
parents, then by kindred and friends. Its drenched garments are now
replaced by gay attire, and a curious ceremony called _weean teean_ is
next gone through with. Candles are lighted, and while the music is
playing loudly are carried five times round the child, who is seated
on a kind of throne between two circular five-storied flowerstand-like
altars, called _bai-sees_, containing cooked rice, fruit and flowers,
offerings to the spirits of the air. The candles are then blown out in
such a way that the smoke shall be borne toward the child. This is
supposed to stock the boy or girl with spirit and courage for the
duties of life.
The relatives and friends of the family now are expected to make a
present in money to the child, each according to his ability or
station, the sums varying from one to eighty pieces of silver (60
cents to $48), so that the newly-shorn youngster will on these
occasions receive enough to give him quite a start in the world or if
a maiden sufficient for a dowry.
And now a general feasting ensues, the yellow-clad priests being first
served, and for a day or two more the music and theatrical
performances continue. After this the children are reckoned as young
men and young women. The _kone-chook_ is in fact their “coming-out”
festival.
Those whose poverty will not allow the expense of such an affair take
their child when it arrives at the proper age to a Buddhist temple,
and have a priest shave off the tuft with some simple religious
ceremony.
If so much is made of this observance in the case of ordinary
children, the celebration of the first hair-cutting of a young prince
or princess, as may well be imagined, is a very grand affair. It is
then styled a _sokan_. Preparations for it commence months beforehand;
the governors of provinces far and near are summoned to be present;
the highest priests in the kingdom are invited; and public
festivities, with free theatres, shadow-plays, rope-dancing, etc., to
amuse the immense crowds of people present, are kept up for many days.
If the child prince or princess is of the very highest rank, part of
the ceremony takes place on an artificial mountain constructed in the
court of the palace of strong timberwork and boards, covered so
entirely with sheets of pewter gilded that it appears like a beautiful
mountain of gold. The one erected a few years ago for the _sokan_ of
the eldest daughter of the reigning king――she being also a great
grand-daughter of the ex-regent――the princess Sri Wililaxan, was sixty
feet high (higher than a four-story building), and had cliffs here and
grottoes there, and lakes and waterfalls, and trees with artificial
monkeys and birds and serpents, which by concealed machinery were made
to move among them as if alive, and winding paths that led to the top,
where an elegant gilt pavilion gleamed in the sun.
The ceremonies on this occasion commenced with the chanting of prayers
in the hall of state at the palace by twenty-four head priests of the
chief temples of the city, and the lighting of “the candle of
victory,” a huge wax candle six feet high, which burned day and night
till the moment the hair was cut. The next morning these same priests
were sumptuously feasted at the palace, and dismissed with presents of
priests’ robes, cushions, fans, etc., and another company took their
place.
In the afternoon was the first of the grand processions to escort the
young princess to the great hall of state where the religious services
were held. In the open square in front of this hall seats were
provided for six or seven hundred of the nobility to witness the
procession, themselves a most brilliant sight in their coats of gold
brocade, many sparkling with diamonds. As soon as the king arrived and
seated himself in the high pavilion prepared for him a troop of
beautiful girls in glittering dresses descended from the golden
mountain――from the gilded temple there――and at the base of the
mountain, in full view of His Majesty, danced the flower-dance to the
sound of native music, waving branches of gold and silver flowers.
Heralded by music, the imposing procession now came on. First there
were masked men representing Japanese warriors; then Siamese soldiers
in European uniform, with bands of music; then two noblemen,
representing celestial messengers, archangels, dressed in all white
with gold embroidery, and having crowns on their heads terminating in
a long, slender, white spire full eighteen inches high. These led on a
hundred more angels with like high-pointed spires on their heads; then
came Indian musicians and yet more angels, and then companies of men
and boys of all nationalities that were to serve the princess, each in
their national costume――first, a troop of Chinese in blue, then of
Malays with white turbans, then Anamese, Peguans, Laos, Karens.
And now a pretty sight――more than a hundred children of noblemen
dressed in white, with little gold coronets on their topknots and
loaded with jewelry, all kept in their places by holding on to a rope
drawn tight by strong men before and behind. Trumpeters and drummers
in scarlet came next, and Brahmans in white and gold scattering
flowers and sprinkling holy water. Men now came on carrying the
peculiar standards of royalty: eight had each a sort of many-storied
umbrella of gold cloth, the staff fifteen feet high; others carried
huge golden curiously-carved fans with long handles, others spears,
and one the sword of state. Two pretty damsels, robed and crowned as
queens, with bunches of peacock feathers in their hands, followed, and
then came the little princess herself, in white robes and wearing a
small diadem, seated on a golden throne borne aloft on the shoulders
of pages in purple. By her side walked six of the great nobles of the
kingdom as archangels, with high white steeple-like crowns, and twelve
maids of honor in rich dresses followed, bearing her gold tray of
betel, her spittoon, fan and other articles of use; then there were
more of the storied umbrellas and huge fans and spear-bearers. Next in
the procession walked with lady-like and graceful carriage fifty or
more of the king’s wives in ranks of four, all wearing robes of snowy
silk reaching to their feet, with scarfs of silver hue, and eight or
nine massive gold chains passing over one shoulder and across the
breast, as did the scarfs, the other shoulder and arm being left bare.
After these came various officials of the harem, and last the female
police of the palace.
Following the women of the palace were representatives of women of all
the nations living in Siam and near it――Chinese, Japanese, Hindoo,
Burmese, Laos, Cochin-Chinese, etc.――each in their national dress, the
last in long blue silk coats with orange trousers. These were
succeeded by the Siamese servants of the princess――hundreds of lively
girls in bright scarfs; after them two white ponies were led by
grooms. Then came the men-servants, many hundreds, in white jackets,
and a regiment of Siamese soldiers formed the rear-guard.
When the princess reached the pavilion where His Majesty sat, her
bearers stopped, and she made homage to her royal father by raising
her joined hands above her head. He, rising to receive her, lifted her
to his side, and together they passed in to where a relay of priests
were chanting prayers. After an hour or so, the princess, coming out,
was escorted back to the gate of the inner palace, all going in the
same order as that in which they came. These processions were repeated
every afternoon for three days.
On the fourth and great day the ceremonies commenced in the morning
soon after daybreak, for so the Brahman astrologers had directed. The
princess, borne in procession as usual, was taken to the great hall of
the palace, and there, precisely at the lucky moment, the lock of hair
about which all this ado was made was solemnly cut with scissors by
the highest of the princes. Her head was then close shaved with gold,
silver and steel razors. The candle of victory was now extinguished.
Still clad in white, our little princess was next carried in
procession to the foot of the golden mountain and seated on a marble
bench in a pool representing the holy lake Anodad. Here the king took
five jars――of gold, silver, brass, bronze and stone――and poured holy
water over her. She shivered, and almost cried. But the great princes
and princesses, and after them the chief of nobles, came up, and each
in turn poured water over the poor child with trying deliberation for
nearly half an hour. At last she was permitted to retire to a
curtained pavilion near and exchange her drenched robes of white for
the rich apparel of royalty. The prime minister and the minister of
foreign affairs, gorgeously clad as angels, escorted her now up the
golden mountain. At the summit an aged uncle of the king and her royal
father himself received her. In the pretty temple there she was
invested with a crown of solid gold, and then descended in full royal
state covered with jewels, and was carried in procession thrice round
the mountain, her right hand toward it.
But, lo! a marvelous transformation in the appearance of the
procession had now taken place. The angels that had been clad in white
now assumed pink or rose tints; the ladies of the palace had
golden-colored scarfs instead of silver, and the pretty children that
came in white were 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 music, and hymns were
chanted while each of the fifteen candles made the circuit of the hall
five times, and then were handed back to the Brahman, who suddenly
extinguished them, blowing the smoke toward the princess, thus wafting
to her, as it were, the invigorating influence of beneficent spirits,
of which they say the air is full. With the same object the Brahman
gave the child some of the rice with the milk of the young cocoanut,
and, dipping his finger in the sacred oil and scented flour, anointed
the right foot in three places. The king then poured holy water over
his daughter’s hands, which she passed over her head, and the
ceremonies for the day were over. For three days this weean-teean rite
was performed, and the processions escorting the princess back and
forth went on, and then the sokan festival was ended.
During these last three days congratulatory presents in silver coin
were most liberally made to the little princess by all of any rank in
the kingdom. The amount received on this occasion was not less, it is
said, than fifty thousand dollars――enough certainly to keep a Siamese
princess in pin-money for life.
One cannot help remarking, How costly all these vain heathen
superstitions! And all this pomp and parade and immense expense and
these wearisome ceremonies, cheerfully undertaken to avert from the
king’s daughter imaginary evils, from which, if they existed, God only
could protect, and to induce prosperity which God only could give! Sad
indeed it is to reflect how completely, in this and in all the customs
of this people, all reference to or thought of the Lord and Maker of
us all, on whom all creatures are dependent for every blessing, and
whose favor is life and true happiness, has been shut out.
Let us, “whose souls are lighted by wisdom from on high,” pray
earnestly for these boys and girls in Siam, who now trust in these
foolish rites and offerings to spirits that do not exist, that as they
enter upon manhood and womanhood the blessing of the almighty One may
rest upon them, so that they, more favored than those before them, may
learn and believe and rejoice in the truth as it is in Christ the
Lord.