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 heaving, even until the body is cold and stiff in death. When all evidence of hearing is gone the attending friends will raise their voices almost to a stunning pitch, hoping that they may force the departing spirit to hear the name of _P’ra Arahang_. When the most loving friends have ceased to have any lingering hope that the dead can hear them longer, then the continuous and deafening sounds of _P’ra Arahang_ are exchanged for the most uncontrollable wailings, which are so loud that they can be heard at a great distance. Then all members of the family, including the slaves in the house within hearing, join in a general outburst of crying and sobbing. When a prince of high rank has just died, other princes, nobles and lords, in the order of their rank, step up one by one and pour a dipper of water upon the corpse. Certain officials in the household dress the body for a sitting posture in a pair of tightly-fitting short pantaloons and jacket, and over these a winding sheet wrapped around the body as firmly as possible. Thus prepared, the corpse is placed in a copper urn with an iron grating for its bottom, and this is put into one made of fine gold, with an outlet at the most pendent point, and a stopcock from which the fluid parts of the body are daily drawn off until it becomes quite dry. The golden urn is then placed on an elevated platform, while conch-shell blowers and trumpeters and pipers perform their several parts with the greatest possible harmony of such instruments. This act is called _Ch’on p’ra sop K’u’n p’ra taan_――literally, an invitation to the corpse to be seated on the platform. When thus seated all the insignia of royalty which the prince was wont to have about him in life are arranged in due order at his feet――viz. his golden betel-box, his cigar-case, his golden spittoon, his writing apparatus, etc. The band of musicians now perform a funeral dirge; and they assemble daily at early dawn, at noon and at nightfall to perform in concert with a company of mourning women who bewail the dead and chant his virtues. In the intervals a company of Buddhist priests, four at a time, sitting on the floor a little distant from the platform, recite moral lessons and chant incantations in the Pali, with loud, clear, musical intonations.