A hair-cutting festival is in progress――a _kone-chook_, as it is called, the ceremonies and the gayeties that attend the first clipping of the cherished topknot on the child’s head. This is the great occasion in the life of the child, and indeed second only to that of a wedding or a funeral in the life of the family. The Siamese in shaving the heads of their children, as they do from their earliest infancy, always leave a small circular lock of hair on the top of the head to be untouched by razor or shears till the child is eleven, thirteen, or fifteen years old. Were it to be cut at an earlier day or without the customary ceremonies, the parents would fear their child would become insane or a prey to a kind of demon they call a _yak_. This lock grows a foot or so long, and is kept oiled and neatly twisted into a knot. Through this a gilt or golden large-headed hairpin three inches long is thrust, and not unfrequently a garland of fragrant white flowers is worn around it, giving young Siamese children quite a pretty appearance. [Illustration: REMOVAL OF THE TUFT OF A YOUNG SIAMESE.] When the right year has arrived and the lucky day for the hair-cutting has been fixed by the astrologers, the friends of the family are invited, and a band of play-actors engaged and a company of Buddhist priests, and for a day or two there is a constant round of prayer-chanting, play-acting and feasting of priests and friends. The ceremonies begin with the priests chanting in chorus their prayers, seated cross-legged on mats on an elevated platform, a thread of white cotton yarn passing from their hands around the clasped hands of the kneeling child and back to them again, serving as a sort of electric conductor to the child of the benefits their prayers evoke. The next morning, when the auspicious moment arrives, the man of highest rank among the guests with shears clips off the long-cherished lock, and the head is close shaved for the first time; and then the child, dressed in white, is led to an elevated seat under a canopy of white cloth and consecrated water is poured freely over it, first by the parents, then by kindred and friends. Its drenched garments are now replaced by gay attire, and a curious ceremony called _weean teean_ is next gone through with. Candles are lighted, and while the music is playing loudly are carried five times round the child, who is seated on a kind of throne between two circular five-storied flowerstand-like altars, called _bai-sees_, containing cooked rice, fruit and flowers, offerings to the spirits of the air. The candles are then blown out in such a way that the smoke shall be borne toward the child. This is supposed to stock the boy or girl with spirit and courage for the duties of life.