SIAMESE CUSTOMS FOR THE DYING AND DEAD.
When a Buddhist prince or princess is at the
point of death, the attendants, wishing to
give the departing spirit as good a passport into
the spirit-world as possible, suspend every other
care and address themselves to the work of fixing
the thoughts of the dying one upon Buddha. To
accomplish this they take turns in enunciating as
clearly as possible the name of Buddha generally
employed when in health—P'ra Arahang.
Whenever the writer has been present at the death of an adult member of the royal family, this has been the name used. It is uttered as often as eight or ten times in a minute. This is done, hoping that the departed spirit will thus be helped to think of Buddha, and that that will accumulate a large fund of merit to his credit which will become of vast service to him in the spirit-world. It would seem to be a service having much the same object as that of the "extreme unction" of the Roman Catholics. It is continued from ten to fifteen minutes after the pulse has stopped its beating and the lungs their
