cr own readers

1 uS THE LAND OF THE WHITE ELE PHANT.
yards and masts of every ship-s-even the tiniest
boat-spa rkled with brilliant coloured fire ; wh ile the
more distant pagodas and palaces were a blaze of
glory. It was the great annual Iestival of iam , the
F er st of Lanterns ; and had we arrived one day later
we should 1I1\'e missed this fairy-land spectacle.
5. Th e temples, of whi ch th ere are one hundred,
are built on the river-bank H ere also stand th e king's
palaces, the houses of the foreign consuls, and th e
residences of the nobility. During last century the
capital of Siam stood on the river -bank some distance
above the position of the present capital: but the
annuliI ove rflow of the river caused such a deposit
of mud that the place became \'eIT unheal th y , and
a new town was buil t further down th e river,
6. The floating houses have no communication
with each other by land ; all travelling is done
by boat. Almost every conceivable commodity is
borne in these little boats- rice, fish, fruit, and flowers
- and cvcry sort of handicraft is carr ied on in
them. Here you may sec a Chinaman man ufacturing
rich soup over a hissing kettle, and delivering it
to his custom ers ; another peI'son is baking bread ;
an oth er, under a gaily-striped awning, is weaving
gold thread into embroidery, while a mite of a child
manages th e little boat. The scene in the water
st reets arc always new and interesting.
7. The religi on of Siam is a form of Buddhism.
The reveren ce with which the iam ese rcgard the
white elephant is not difficult to understan d, wh en
we remember that the white elephants are supposed
to be the abodes of the souls of their dead kings.
One of the most splend id te mples near the city is