IN OTHER LANDS.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 22, Issue 67, 29 August 1911, Page 2

IN OTHER LANDS.

ROYAL FUNERALS IN SIAM,

I The King of Siam, not only has the 1 most dazzling strings of titles, but he has, perhaps, the most ornate fun- • eral of all monarchs. Cremation — not universally practised in Siam, always in the case of the King—is the essential part of the. obsequies; but the ritual connected with it is extraordinarily elaborate, and much of it grotesque. The duty of .carrying it out lies ou the heir to the throne.

The body, after ceremonial washings, in which the new King and ail the princes take part, is swatted ir. costly fabrics and placed in a huge copper urn. Through a tube in the mouth it is filled with a mixture of and mercury.

T 1 e copper urn is then placed in a golden ore, richly adorned with precious stones, and this is borne in solemn procession to “ Pramane Ground,” a space before the Royal palace in Bangkok, on which the funeral pyres of kings are always constructed. Here are erected pavilions for the new King, the Royal Family, and the priests, and an enclosure is made for the guests. In the centre is a pagoda under which the urn is placed. The funeral service lasts for a week, and all that time a kind of liturgy of the dead Is recited by the priests, thousands of whom, it is said, are- maintained on these occasions and laden with gifts. At the end of this time the copper urn is taken out of the golden one and laid on a pyre of aromatic woods. The new King lights it with a train of gunpowder from the Royal pavilion, and all around throw in candles, to strengthen the fire. After the cremation, the calcined bones are stored in the golden urn and placed in a room of the palace set apart for the purpose. The ashes are collected on a golden dish and conducted by a procession of barges down the river and cast into the water.

THE CANADIAN FOREST FIRES

By the terrible forest fires which have been sweeping along the northern frontier of Minnesota, in Canada, at least five towns have been completely destroyed, and it is estimated that 200 to 500 persons have perished in the flames. About ,2,000 persons are missing, and other refugees,, numbering some 5,000, are homeless. A thousand square miles of country have been laid waste. Thousands of lives have been saved by the Canadian Northern Railway relief trains running through the stricken districts, and there is littledoubt that the inhabitants of the devastated towns of Spooner, Beaudette, Pitt, and Qracetown in Minnesota owe their safety to the railway.

The immense tracts of forest and arable land that lay in the great north-west of Northern America are watched and guarded by forest ranj gers, and preventing and fighting fire jis one of the:'- chief duties. The for- ! est ranger does not attempt the im--1 possible task of putting out a fi re I jhe merely keeps it from spreading, i and allows it to take its own life. jThc first thing he does, after exploring a fire, is to "trench” it, which means making a shallow ditch \ around the fire, raking hack all combustible material, and cutting away the logs and underbrush. The large fire is more complex. Besides trenching it, it is always advisable to "back fire”—that is| to start a second fire inside the trench and let it spread towards the approaching larger one. In this way the hottest point of the fire comes where the two fires meet, not at the edge of the trench ; and there is much less danger of the fire leaping the cleared space. During and after an electrical storm comes an anxious period for the forest ranger.. Lightning seems to have a special affinity for timber, and sometimes shatters a whole tree, which falls splintered to the ground. Some of the stricken trees will take fire Instantly, notwithstanding that the bark has been damped by the accompanying rain, and spread to the leaves and brush on the ground with alarming rapidity. Fires occasionally occur which no human power can battle with ; but the ranger has very largely prevented these destructive visitations, and will still more largely prevent them as soon as there are enough men in the service to patrol properly these immense forests.