eedingly destructive in trampling down and crushing foot-soldiers.
The howdah is placed well up on the animal's back, and in it sits a
military officer of high rank, with an iron helmet on his head, and
above him a seven-layered umbrella, as the insignia of his royal
commission. On the croup sits the groom, guiding the royal beast
with an iron hook, while all about the officer are disposed lances,
javelins, pikes, helmets and other munitions of war, which he
dispenses as they are needed during the progress of a battle. I have
been told that as many as six or seven hundred of these colossal
creatures are often marched and marshaled in battle together; and
so perfectly are they trained as to be guided and controlled without
difficulty, even amid the din of firearms and the conflict of
contending armies. Sometimes on the king's journeys into the interior
a train of fifty or sixty will be marched in perfect order, their
stately stepping beautiful to behold, but their huge feet coming down
with a jolt that threatens to dislocate every joint of the unfortunate
rider.

I have spoken of the gorgeousness of the Bangkok temples, but I must
not forget to mention the colossal statue of Booddh that reposes in
one of them. It is one hundred and seventy feet in length, of solid
masonry, perfectly covered with a plating of pure gold, and rests
quite naturally upon the right side, the recumbent position indicating
the dreamless repose the god now enjoys in _nirwana_. This is supposed
to be the largest image of Gautama, the fourth Booddh, in existence,
and it is an object of the profoundest veneration to every devout
Booddhist.

Incremation of the dead is the custom in Siam, and while there I was
present at several royal funerals, each marked by more lavish display
of costly magnificence than we Americans ever see on this side the
water. Shortly after I left the country occurred the death of the
patriotic second king, so well and favorably known among us as Prince
T. Momfanoi, the introducer of square-rigged vessels and many other
improvements, and afterward as King Somdet Phra Pawarendr Kamesr Maha
Waresr. The body was embalmed, and lay in state for nearly a year
before the burning took place. The count de Beauvoir reached Bangkok
just in time to see the royal catafalque, of which he gives a somewhat
amusing account. He says: "The body, having been thoroughly dried
by mercury, was so doubled that the head and feet came together, and