The fire is extinguished before all the bones have been reduced to ashes. A few of the remaining coals of the bones are carefully collected and deposited in a neat and very precious gold urn. By the time this is done the sun is set, and the P'ramene is left in a despoiled state until next morning. Nevertheless, the hall is lighted and all the usual exercises go on through the night as before. Early the next morning the Pra Bencha pyramid is restored to its original splendor and the little golden urn of precious coal is placed on its summit.
All the ashes left by the burning are put in clean white muslin and laid in a golden platter. They are then ceremoniously carried in state to the royal landing, and, escorted by a procession of state barges, attended by the funeral bands, carried down the river about a mile and there committed to its waters.
The funeral obsequies of a king are continued three days after the burning, and the ceremonies are almost the same as those in anticipation of it until the last day. On that day a royal procession is formed, somewhat like that of the first day, to bear the charred remains in the little golden urn to a sacred depository of such relics of the kings of Siam within the royal palace. Very soon after this the servants of the king gather up all the articles which it is customary to preserve for future funeral occasions—viz. the
