extends to the two front carriages. This forms the mystical union between the corpse, the sacred book and their royal highnesses. The carriage behind the one bearing the royal urn carries some fifty or sixty sticks of imported fragrant wood, richly gilded at the ends, with which the body is to be burned. Each of these carriages is drawn by a pair of horses, with scores of men to assist, all pulling at a rope in front of the beasts.
Figures of elephants, rhinoceroses, lions, tigers and fabulous animals, all made of bamboo wickerwork and having on their backs large receptacles for priests' robes, are drawn on small wooden wheels. In front and in the rear hundreds of men dressed in white, with pagoda-form white turbans eight or ten inches tall, purporting to be angels, walk four abreast and carry glass imitation lotus-flowers.
The moment the procession begins to move the shells, trumpets and pipes are sounded and the death-drums are beaten with a slow, measured stroke until the royal hearse reaches the P'ramene. By ropes and pulleys the urn is drawn slowly up with much ceremony and placed on the splendid throne, to remain in state at least seven days before burning, the strip of silver cloth extending from the lid of the urn down the eastern and western sides of the pyramid nearly to the flight of steps on the east and west sides of the building.
