"Keep me still meditating on Thy infinite greatness and my own
nothingness, so that all the questions of my life may be answered and my
mind abundantly instructed in the path of Niphan!"
In his hands was placed a ball of unspun thread, the ends of which were
carried round the sacred hill, and thence round the temple, and into the
inner chamber, where it was bound round the head of the young prince.
Thence again nine threads were taken, which, after encircling the altar,
were passed into the hands of the officiating priests. These latter
threads, forming circles within circles, symbolize the mystic word _Om_,
which may not escape the lips even of the purest, but must be meditated
upon in silence.
Early on the third day all the princes, nobles, and officers of
government, together with the third company of priests, assembled to
witness the ceremony of shaving the royal top-knot. The royal sire
handed first the golden shears and then a gilded razor to the happy
hair-cutter, who immediately addressed himself to his honorable
function. Meanwhile the musicians, with the trumpeters and
conch-blowers, exerted all their noisy faculties to beguile the patient
heir.
The tonsorial operation concluded, the prince was robed in white, and
conducted to the marble basin at the foot of the Sacred Mount, where the
white elephant, the ox, the horse, and the lion, guarding the cardinal
points, were brought together, and from their mouths baptized him in the
sacred waters. He was then arrayed in silk, still white, by women of
rank, and escorted to a golden pagoda on the summit of the hill, where
the king, in the character of P'hra Inn Suen, waited to bestow his
blessing on the heir. With one hand raised to heaven, and the other on
the bowed head of his son, he solemnly uttered words of Pali, which may
be translated thus:--
"Thou who art come out of the pure waters, be thy offences washed away!
Be thou relieved from other births! Bear thou in thy bosom the
brightness of that light which shall lead thee, even as it led the
sublime Buddha, to Niphan, at once and forever!"
These rites ended, the priests were served with a princely banquet; and
then the nobility and common people were also feasted. About midday, two
standards, called _baisêe_, were set up within a circle of people. These
are not unlike the _sawekra chât_, or royal umbrella, one of the five
insignia of royalty in Siam. They are about five cubits high, and have
from three to five canopies. The staff is fixed in a wooden pedestal.
Each circle or canopy has a flat bottom, and within the receptacle thus
formed custom requires that a little cooked rice, called _k'ow k'wan_,
shall be placed, together with a few cakes, a little sweet-scented oil,
a handful of fragrant flour, and some young cocoanuts and plantains.
Other edibles of many kinds are brought and arranged about the _baisêe_,
and a beautiful bouquet adorns the top of each of the umbrella-like
canopies.
Then a procession was formed, of princes, noblemen, and others, who
marched around the standards nine times. As they went, seven golden
candlesticks, with the candles lighted, were carried by princes, and
passed from one to another; and as often as they came in front of the
prince, who sat between the standards, they waved the light before him.
This procession is but another form of the _Om_ symbol.
Afterwards the eldest priest or brahmin took a portion of the rice from
the _baisêe_, and, sprinkling it with cocoanut water, gave the lad a
spoonful of it. Then dipping his finger, first in the scented oil and
then in the fragrant flour, he touched the right foot of the prince, at
the same time exhorting him to be manly and strong, and to bear himself
bravely in "the conflict of feeling."
Now presents of silver and gold were laid at the feet of the lad,--every
prince not of the royal family, and every nobleman and high officer in
the kingdom, being expected to appear with gifts. A chowfa might
receive, in the aggregate, from five hundred thousand to a million
ticals. [Footnote: A tical is equivalent to sixty cents.] It should be
remarked in this connection, that the late king commanded that careful
note be kept of all sums of money presented by officers of his
government to his children at the time of Soh-Khan, that the full amount
might be refunded with the next semi-annual payment of salary. But this
decree does not relieve the more distinguished princes and endowed
noblemen, who have acquired a sort of complimentary relationship to his
Majesty through their daughters and nieces accepted as concubines.
The children of plain citizens, who cannot afford the luxury of a public
hair-cutting, are taken to a temple, where a priest shaves the tuft,
with a brief religious ceremony.
Hardly had the prince recovered his wonted frame of mind, after an event
so pregnant with significance and agitation to him, when the time
arrived for his induction into the priesthood. For this the rites,
though simpler, were more solemn. The hair, which had been suffered to
grow on the top of his young pate like an inverted brush, was now shorn
close, and his eyebrows were shaven also. Arrayed in costly robes and
ornaments, similar to those worn at a coronation, he was taken in charge
by a body of priests at his father's palace, and by them conducted to
the temple Watt P'hra Këau, his yellow-robed and barefooted escort
chanting, on the way, hymns from the Buddhist liturgy. At the threshold
of the temple another band of priests divested him of his fine robes and
clad him in simple white, all the while still chanting. The circle being
characteristic of a Buddhist ceremonial, as the cross is of their
religious architecture, these priests formed a circle, standing, and
holding lighted tapers in their folded palms, the high-priest in the
centre. Then the prince advanced meekly, timidly, bowing low, to enter
the holy ring. Here he was received by the high-priest, and with their
hands mutually interfolded, one upon the other, he vowed to renounce,
then and there, the world with all its cares and temptations, and to
observe with obedience the doctrines of Buddha. This done, he was clad
afresh in sackcloth, and led from the temple to the royal monastery,
Watt Brahmanee Waid; with bare feet and eyes downcast he went, still
chanting those weird hymns.
Here he remained recluse for six months. When he returned to the world,
and to the residence assigned him, he seemed no longer the impressible,
ardent boy who was once my bright, ambitious scholar. Though still
anxious to prosecute his English studies, he was pronounced too old to
unite with his brothers and sisters in the school. For a year I taught
him, from seven to ten in the evening, at his "Rose-planting House"; and
even from this distant place and time I look back with comfort to those
hours.