Siam and Laos, as Seen by Our American Missionaries
History
Siam and Laos, as Seen by Our American Missionaries
Laos -- Description and travel; Missions -- Laos; Missions -- Thailand; Thailand -- Description and travel
The walls and roofs of these huts are supported by posts set in the
ground some two feet of their length and reaching to the plates. The
ridge of the roof also rests upon posts of the necessary length. The
posts for the walls are arranged according to a long-observed custom.
They must be in sets of threes or fives, etc.; odd numbers bring luck.
The spaces between each of these sets of posts have specific names.
Religious superstition takes under its guidance almost every part of
the work, and when the house is done it still directs as to the day
and the manner of moving in to take possession. No doors or windows
are found in the eastern wall. The family sleep with their heads
toward the east. Part of the main building――generally the end facing
south――is reserved for an open court. The east end of this court has a
wall continuous with that of the house. Along this wall is a shelf
upon which are placed flowers and other offerings in worship of Buddha
and the good spirits. In this outer court, if the family are
religiously inclined, the priests, by invitation, occasionally conduct
a merit-making service for the prosperity of the household. In cases
of sickness like services are held here. Preventives of sickness or
other calamity are often seen resting on the top of the posts under
the plate that receives the rafters. These consist of small pieces of
cloth on which are written certain symbolic characters, the cloths
themselves having become charms, potent against the intrusion of evil
spirits, through the incantations of what our American Indians would
call “medicine-men.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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