The poor slave who has just been mentioned, must have had a friend who was willing to pay the expenses of the burning to the Talapoys, or _alias_ the phratais or phra-bo-coots as they are called in Siamese, otherwise he would have been thrown without ceremony into the Menam and become food for fish or alligators. A worthless priesthood, who _daily_ spunge the most abject in society of their scanty pittance of rice, clothing, or fruit, refuse even a few sticks of wood to consume the dead bodies of their poor benefactors, and to recite a few heathenish prayers without being amply paid for their trouble; but the priests of Budha are not the only ones who exact payment for what is obviously their bounden duty. Some of the Christian churches, even in this vicinity, as well as those of other countries, will be paid for burying their dead, and saying mass for the repose of departed souls. [Sidenote: BURNING THE DEAD.] The ceremony of burning the dead may be witnessed almost daily, between noon and three o’clock, within the precincts of the temples. During the ceremony, music of a most discordant kind is frequently introduced. The instruments are noisy and consist of gongs, drums, &c., &c. Prayers, written in the Pah language on slips of palm-leaf, are first read by a priest from a pulpit; females and males set beneath it each holding a taper: the language is probably unintelligible to every one present, for most of the priests can barely read it, and few of them understand it. These places are generally thronged with idle persons, who take no part in the ceremonies, and walk in and out talking and smoking cigars, &c., &c. At the head of the coffin is a piece of white cloth; a number of priests take hold of it on each side, reciting certain prayers--this being ended, the coffin and bier are dismantled, the body is washed by one of the servants of the pagoda, who is always paid a small fee for this most disgusting piece of service. Bodies are frequently kept for days in this sultry climate, and then the office is no sinecure--it is truly loathsome. The ablution being concluded, a layer of wet earth is laid on the bier and dry wood is piled upon it--the body is then replaced in the coffin, and carried three successive times around the altar by the nearest male relatives, and afterward deposited upon the pile; tapers and incense rods are distributed to all who will receive them; a priest delivers a final prayer, then sets fire to the funeral pile, and is followed by all who receive tapers and rods for that purpose. The scull is always broken with a heavy bar of iron, to prevent, as they say, an explosion and scattering of the bones and brains. Small pieces of money are now distributed to objects of charity, who are always in waiting at these places at the usual hours, and are disappointed if there are no rich victims ready for the funeral pile; sometimes the male relatives throw bundles of cloth over the