The Opelousas courier., 1884-07-12

sOne or the 0 curious lHcluoAeS
Of my last trip to SIAM" said an AMI
NAL collector to a New York Sun re-
porter, occurred in the city of Man
dalay. Before l went away thequeso
ton of bringing a white elephant to
this country was not even thought of,
as the natives would have considered
that such a sacrilege would call divine
anger upon the people, but 1 had an
order to secure, if possible, the next
best thing, and that was a white mon
key. an animal that is reverenced by
the people and kept under the same
cover with the white elephant. The
monkeys are supposed to be the tenn
porary resting place of some powerful
spirit, who will drive away evil spirits
from the white elephant. Well,
tried every way. l first tackled al
the animal dealers in the city, but a
soon as | said white they held up their
hands in holy horror, and declared that
all such animals were presented to the
king. There was evidently no chance
there, but l soon found that the minis
tiers of the king WERE, some of them,
poorly paid lot; in fact. part of then
received no remuneration at all fol
their services. Even the soldiers were
ill-paid. So, finally, I made up my
mind to get an audience with his
Royal G~olden-footed Majesty :Rul-
er of the land and sea- Lord of the
power of life and DEATH king Of
Ava This I did by sending word
that l had a curious invention, which
was nothing but one of the first watch,
like machines invented to measure the
distance covered by pedestrians.
"Well," continued the traveller. q
was ushered in with half a dozen 9TH
ers, part of whom were natives, who
according to custom, sat with their
faces to the ground. Finally the king
came into the apartment, and sat down
within about fifteen feet of me, took
up an opera glass, and began to look
at me as if l was some curiosity. Hav-
ing taken us all in, he began to talk
through a minister-the interpreter
| explained how much America rever
enced white animals, especially mon
keys, and talked for an hour, but nev-
er a word in reply, and was finally
dismissed. Two days later, however
a man came to me, and asked what /
was willing to give for a white mon
key. I offered $500. The next da
the ma came again, and, to cut it
short. I was shown where the white
monkey was, and one night started
with a bag, and before morning was
going down the harbor with MI. Mon
key in it. 1 had hired d boat and was
going to stow him away there,
but when / was within a quarter of a
mile of the place / intended stopping
four men rushed out of a dark spot at
me. One laid me fiat with q knock on
the head, another grabbed the monkey
and off they went, all in different direc-
tions. I saw it was a put up job. I
ought not to have paid the money in
advance. The next day there was the
white monkey in it's old quarters as
natural as life, and / never could get
near the King, Minister, or any one
else to get satisfaction out of them"
TIE Healing ART 6n THrfGry.
A preparation of pulverized vegeta-
btss is the acknowledged basis of all
heir popular remedies, and from them
ire made the various infusions and pills
used by the medicine men" of that
far-away region. If il so chance that
the Lama doctor is out of vegetable
medicine, he writes his prescription
upon small bits of paper, moistens them
with saliva, and between his fingers
rolls them into shape. These paper
pellets are accepted with the same
sweet spirit of trust as are the yerita-
BILE drugs; and precisely as eficacious
is it, in their estimation, to swallow
the drug or its written a~ppellation.
Tartar belief recognizes always "a
Tchutgour' Ca devil), whose presence
torments the invalid, and to effect a
cure, this fiend must be exercised, and
SO prayers and appeals supplement the
administration of the pellets. If the
patient be poor, q little devil busies
himself as a tormenting power. and a
feW-often a very few-prayers or
simple exorcism effects a cure. But
should ga person of substance fall
under the demons power-ah, then, it
is another affair decidedly, and ..this
devil of condition. must be met ac-
cordingly. cd Tchutgour Of quality
should never be elected as easily as ga
small deyilkin;" this should never be
allowed. Without loss of time, rich
clothing. a handsome pair Of boots, and
as spirited a young horse as may be
procured, must be made ready, else