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Show I ( ThaV s the Le, I: ' j ..i-.-- , -i i- t .... Il( r I The royal Siamese couple, the marrying of whom requires approxl- I mately three month. Left, the former Princess Lakshmi Lavan, jj acclaimed the most beautiful woman in Siam. Right, the ( v King of Siam "m IW ORE than a month ago tho royal organ in Siam sounded off with XT A tno siameso "Here Comes tho Bride," for the king of that domain of the White Elephant is at last being married. And, wondrous to relate, not for three months after the first notes have pealed forth may congrntu-latings congrntu-latings of the happy couplo bo in order. Recent reckonings, based on comparative compara-tive marital statistics, have indicated that Siam's monarch cannot count on being firmly wedded In much less than ninety days. During the past season five princes of Kedah (ono of them crown) assumed tho bonds of matrimony at a festival which lasted more than two months. Which, 1 counting tho breathing spells, figures out at about twelve days per prince. Now, Kedah is only the southerly province of Siam. Even the aggregate jl matrimony of half a dozen provincial princes (counting the crown one twico) .an scarcely be expected to equal tho ixtent of the nuptials of tho sovereign I of the mother country. Past perform ances make ninety days seem a very conservative con-servative estimate indeed. And there is the additional consideration considera-tion that, though former kings of Siam actually have scored their wives by the thousands, the present occupant of the throne for whom tho wedding bells are ringing has thus far not had even one. There is every reason to believe thnt ho will take just this one littro wife and call it a day. Can any one . fesr, then, that SfegArf&E : skimp 1 J tho length LflH9ilflfel ceremony? The average HESMsL American bride- ESfintYM i' . . .-n I he w a i t s an pBOHaaeWEteia" 5 eternity while the i J jHlff1dj bridal procession j i nnd the bride are '. taking their lei- H surely, trembly r,, .. way up the aisle toward him. Let one and nil The Sia American bridegrooms reflect on the ninety-day ordeal of the King of Siam. It may seem a bit protracted while the bridegroom awaits the retrieving of the ring from the pockets of the best man. H But it isn't ninety days, with or with out daylight saving. The entiro ceremony endured by the American bridegroom will take less than H an hour, while the King of Siam may H have to go through with 2.1G0 hours. H Though little has been reported of : tho nuptials of Siam's new ruler, King Maha Varjiravudlh, or King Rama yg VI, as he is called for 6hort, they may be pictured by a survey of tho ; d wedding festivals accorded tho five sons of tho Sultan of Kedah, it Doing Do-ing borne in mind that tho latter affairs were on a decidedly smaller scale comparatively com-paratively speaking, being no more than mere house weddings, with only members mem-bers of the family present, as contrasted with tho gala church coremony of Siam's monarch. The news of tho Kedah marriage was bruited about, far nnd wide, allowing timo for everybody that was anybody to got there. Tho late King of Siam, father of tho present monarch, had another an-other engagement, but he sent one of his Bons (of whom he had 134, according accord-ing to the lateit royal census) to represent repre-sent him. The 6on, Princo Charan, mado tho trip by easy elephant stages and arrived ar-rived Just in time to see the nuptials get under way to link His Royal Highness Tunku Ibrahim, tho Crown Prince, with his first couein, Her Highness, Tunku Ayshah, daughter of His Highness, tho Rajah Muda of Kedah. That probably was not even a . starter on the highnesses at the I, wedding of the King of Siam. Jf j Then came the M .veWKficV wedding meco royal palace at Bangkok, which lowing for tho extensions due greater royalty, In all probability typified that of the quite praiseworthily single-minded King Rama VI. Everybody prays very seriously for the bride and bridegroom, who have not met before. It cannot be denied that under the circumstances prayers are in order. After everybody is all through praying perhaps somebody thinks to introduce them. That should make everything quite a bit easier all around. Goodness knows getting manied to some one you ngth of me It Takes I the King of Siam to Complete His Marriage Ceremony ylfEg '"r ' M W W: : ' ' : 1 ). ' ''-'; '1 ;-'V'4 ' l ... . ,;;t;V, The King in his court robes. His father had some six hundred 1 i wives but the i present po- '. tcntate will villi one formerly housed hundreds of royal w know fairly well is nervous enough work, and meeting up at the altar with a perfect per-fect stranger, all done up in a veil and orange blossoms, must bo just about tho limit of human endurance. The marriage ceremony or one of 'em is celebrated in public, and this may bo described u the second round of this bout with matrimony. Now the fun starts in. Dinner is served to all hand'. A banquet is beautifully beau-tifully put on in the courthouse, such an edifice in Siam being far different from I ": s If I From midnight until dawn, as the palace clock tolls each hour, the bride must creep all alone down the shadowy j j length of the famous Hall of Buddhas and murmur a prayer in front of each of the 47 grim stone images. j the average American gloomy pile. To quote a guest; "Two refreshment re-freshment bars wero kept open in the courthouse day and night, free to everybody, during tho two months of tho ceremonies." One can imagino that by tho end of the ceremonies all concerned were pretty well refreshed. A round of junketings is descriptive descrip-tive of tho next four or five days of the marriages, and what can bo moro jolly than a round of junketings? You begin to i junket about nine in the morning morn-ing and you don't get through junketing until 1 o'clock the following morning. Then ycu get the customary eight hour3 sleep and get up and begin to junket again. Various performances per-formances on roadside stages are witnessed, Europeans, Siamese, Malays, Hindus, Chinese Chi-nese and Mahometans picking the show they can understand best. At one there's a bit of j tiffin. Then sports and Malay-Mi Malay-Mi fencing, followed by dinner. There is an intermission for fireworks, then supper. After B that come singing, dancing and other kinds of merry making. People of Importance are ves, but which now has only a single carried around th town, which isn't so surprising, considering all that junketing. junket-ing. The procession commences the picking pick-ing of the "enai," which consists of walking seven times around a garden planted with artificial flowers and finally deciding to go on in and pick some of them. The leaves arc taken to the houso of the bride and bridegroom and sprinkled sprin-kled over them, and addresses are delivered de-livered to them separately, for, it develops, de-velops, they have not yet met. It would seem that by this time the lack of an introduction was getting beyond tho limits of a joke. At last the happy pair are introduced, and it would seem to be about time, for people would begin to talk. The couplo arc carried around on a throne by 200 natives, which should give them somewhat some-what of an opportunity to get really acquainted. ac-quainted. The tenth round features tiffin and fireworks, and tho eleventh tiffin and illumination?, and the twelfth tiffin and various performances. With the thirteenth round comes tho grand climax, and its high point is the lime bath. All the European guests were invited to the palace, where were the Sultan and the whole royal family, vth many hundreds of natives. When the Siameso guards had ordered all inside that were going inside they locked tho gates. Tho bride then is carried in. The bridegroom walks in, supported not by one but by two best men, a strange cus-Um, cus-Um, tho origin of which is not explained. The bridal couple take a seat on a bench on a platform, where they make a fine showing in their best state dresses of eilk embroidered with gold and diamonds. Then twelve old matrons of honor walk around and around tho couple; all but two of them make an exit. The two remaining re-maining behind close the curtains and divest the touple of their robes of state, dressing them in - light garments, Jl 2 When the cur- vQEKUBfc; ML tains are drawn JQlHf3HflBK9 open two ornate ',- j faucets in the , .: jJBJ form of serpents I '.':. I i ut fi.-el neg- .ted, every na- -.v, ' th.'ii seizes fj a bucket, filling 1 -.-i it at a tub of scented water mistress and drenching every ono around him. After this ceremony, which corresponds to our rice throwing over here, it can be said that a Siamese knot has been tied. But there are still a number of customs cus-toms hallowed by centuries of tradition to be observed before the lovers can bo considered ono until death. One of tho most extraordinary of thece is tin Night of Prayer which the bride is required to observe, all alone, unattended by any of her numerous maids of honor or other servant. From midnight until dawn, as the palace clock tolls each hour, sta mast j creep down the Bhadowy length of thflB famous Hall of the Buddhas and raur mur a prayer for the l'.mg life and hsp j iness of her husband and herself n front of each of the -IT grim stoM images. As thir. protracted religious dsM votion is preceded by at least twentyS four and sometimes forty-eight hours abstinence from food it is not surpns j ing if morning finds the bride in a I thoroughly exhausted condition. j You may be tun.-, however, that lilt 1 nerves herself to go through the ordeaH without faltering, for all sorts of erM omens attach to the omission of even I ono of the several hundred prayertB which are considered necessary for UN 1 portion of th.' r.iurr.age ceremony. At 1 dawn 6he is allowed to at and to sleep I for a few hours and then is conducted 1 in great state to tho chamber where lM j bridegroom awaits her. Small wonder that in consideration of i a wedding of which the aforementioned m ceremonies can be only a sample, Kinf Rama's determination to have only ote 1 wife is strengthened. When he was the crown prince he flB cent by his father, the enlightened King 1 Chulalongkorn, to obtain his educatioajl at Oxford in England. There he ac I quired also the prevailing Occidental j ' ideas on marriage for love, which did not j seem to coincide with the polygamy Pr,6 ticed In Siam. , So when the prince returned to hi! M native land and found that hia f"tD II thoughtfully had lined up for him twelve noble brides, just for a i tarter, he de-j : with thanks. Old King Chula longkorn, who had had GOO wives in hUffl day, is believed to have smiled a 54 Siamese smile and replied that, aftr I perhaps it was just as well. At rate, he interposed no objection. I So Prince Vajiravudh remained a bachelor and continued so, even fofl twelve yean after he ascended thel throne, in apite of the fact that tba Siamese nobility urged all the best-lot" ing daughters on him. In 1917 he beS came engaged to hi3 cousin, but that broken off on account of her "ncrvou ness," said a document of state King, figuring he was going to have onjS wife, was going to get a perfectly J good one while he was about it. Now at last he is being wed te Princess Lakshmi Lavan, who is caU the most beautiful g.rl in Siam. u-B So when the long-drawn-out weddlnj and its successive rite-s and rettPj ompleted those '."ho pas.- n'on.rB receiving line can congratulatf the KiDj I with real sincerity and remark P''B antly that, apropos of wivci, it is. "B all, a question of quality, not quantity |