KAW PRASAI. The ground surrounding the different monasteries is always covered with sand, so that in wet weather the feet of the priests may not get covered with mud as they walk from their cells to the temple. Once each year fresh sand is brought and built up into little hills in the temple grounds; hence the above name, "Kaw" meaning "to build," "pra" meaning "holy" and "sai" "sand." The building of these holy sand-hills is a substitute, amongst the poorer classes, for the more laborious and expensive way of making merit, involved in the erection of a prachadee. The sand is moulded as nearly as possible in the form of the spiral relic mounds, and is ornamented with small flags. The sand is bought from the monastery, which thus obtains money for building purposes, or for the purchase of more sand for the courtyard. Small coins are placed in the holy hillocks, and these become the property of those who find them when the hillocks are demolished. CHAPTER XVIII. RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES (_continued_). LOY KRATHONG. The Loy Krathong festivals were established by King Pra Luang, the founder of the Thot Katin ceremonies, and they originally occurred in connection with them; but they have gradually become separated from them, and have now an independent existence of their own. Whereas the Katin ceremonies owe their origin to a superstition propagated by worshippers of the Buddhist faith, the Loy Krathong festivities are an outgrowth of Brahminical worship. The old "wat" visitations, with the presentation of robes to the priests, originated, as we have seen, in a peculiar belief as to the actions of an ascetic priesthood, and were afterwards definitely established as annual occurrences by the king. Their connection with the ceremony about to be described, was due to accidental circumstances that did not arise for several years after the initiation of the older festival. The later ceremonies which were connected primarily with the Katin, and which have now become a separate function, originated, according to the late king's account, in the following manner.