56
70. The phrase at the end of the line is recognized in the North as งาม ดั่ง แกล้ง 'beautiful as if purposely made so'. The last word แกล้ง is frequently used in Siamese of actions done with 'malice prepense', or with misleading intention, but not in this particular connection. The final ง needed is supposably in the break at the head of the next line, the opening line of the third face of the stone, and is not the ง which appears just at the edge of the break. As in a number of other cases, the problem of filling this insignificant gap at the beginning of a line has proved surprisingly difficult. The previous sentence is apparently closed, and the new sentence begins with the next complete word after the break.
71. ตีน นอน is certainly 'north' and หัว นอน, l. 74, 116, is certainly 'south', however strange such orientation may seem, and however difficult it may be to account for the fact. It is affirmed that early sepulture among the Thais was always with the feet to the north. P has exactly reversed the compass-points here, though he has them right in 117, 121.
72. Two letters have been lost from the beginning of this line. They should be medial between initial ป at the end of 71, and final น, the first letter legible here. S, P, and RS read ปสาน=ประสาน, 'united', 'joined'—which may be right, though the word is an odd one in this context. Of อจน, plainly writ, neither etymology nor meaning are known. The presumption, however, is that it is the name of some image, since the term พระ in this text is nowhere else applied to any inanimate objects save images and relics of Buddha. Cf. 59, 60, 91, 93, 96, 101, 102, 103, 104. The engraver omitted the letters สา from the middle of the word ปราสาท, but by way of correction has supplied them in the interlinear space above.
75. สรีดภงส still puzzles all editors. B renders it 'a lake'; S, 'des eremites'; S, 'des célèbres pénitents'. I would suggest that สรี=สะรี is not an impossible variant of สระ, 'pool' or pond', from Pali sără, 'water', and that ดภงส may be for ตรพงง l. 41, 'spring'—which also seems to have been in B's thought.
76—80. The spirit worship touched upon in these lines, is a most significant feature of the life of all the northern tribes of this peninsula down to the present time. In the south, though less obtrusive, it lies not far below the surface, and
