The Siamese observe a season that may be called the Buddhist Lent, when for three months the priests must not go so far away from their temples as not to be able to return at night. All classes anticipate this season, and provide for them such food as parched rice and corn, also natural and artificial flowers, silvered and gilded trees, and other articles to make their dormitories pleasant and inviting. The day these gifts are presented is called the _Kow Wasah_ holiday. Some of the gifts the priests offer to the idol; others they present to their elders and to aged priests in the same temple with themselves. When the Buddhist Lent is ended and the priests are allowed to come out of the temples and travel where they please, the _Auk Wasah_ holidays are observed. In anticipation of their coming out, as of their going in, the laity, from the highest to the lowest, prepare clothing suitable for their wanderings. The kings have numerous priests’ robes made of white cotton shirting dyed yellow, which is the sacred color. The people prepare gifts according to their means. The first three evenings there is a grand display of fireworks on the river in front of the palaces, His Majesty honoring the occasion with his presence. The river is alive with joyous, pleasure-seeking people hastening to the scene. Offerings consisting of little skiffs and rafts of banana-stalks are seen upon the river. On these are temples, pagodas and transparencies of birds and beasts, all brightly illuminated with wax candles. They are sent off one at a time, and float down with the tide, beautifully illuminating the river. The people make their own family offerings on these evenings an hour or two before the king comes out from the palace; the floats may be seen all over the city in the river and canals near their homes. When these floats have all been disposed of, the king applies a match to fireworks that have been arranged in boats near, and then are seen trees of fire, green shrubbery and a variety of flowers of ever-changing colors, with rockets and squibs in great profusion.