The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-03-13

| probably for their religious warnings.
! But high feeding and alteration do not
encourage that temperament. The
practice Of piety fails to content them
usually after a while. They claim
| voice in the affairs of the monastery
| which is not unreasonable, for a goa
must be better informed than than
mortals. Above all, they seek compan-
lonship, as one may say. When those
tendencies become too pronounced,
they disappear. No announcement is
made, but the devout population look
in vain for their Bogdor parading the
streets with his guard and officers.
Thepilgrims who swarm in the Holy
City have to content themselves with
worshipping before the giant figure of
Nadia, the apostle who converted
these regions to Buddhism, twelve hun
dred years ago or more. In due time
another Bogdor arrives from Llassa-
| to go through the same development,
as rule. But our latest informant,
Mr. Julius M. Price, represents the
managed flourishing in his time QS9S)
as an exception. He had reached the
age of twenty-five, which is very extra
ordinary; and foreign residents-Rus-
slams, that is-described him as "a
most enlightened man, for a Mongol,
taking great interest in all modern
subjects and inventions. He has had
his photo taken (for strictly private
circulation), and keeps piano i'm his
palace. presented by former Russian
consul"
In the mountains dividing Cambodia
| from AMMAN live a people whom the
French call Chreais, very fair general
! ly, of type more or less European.
| Among them dwell two semi be-
| ings entitled the Kings of Fire and
Water. Once, perhaps they We're real
| sovereigns, in the time when these
| Chreais held a broad dominion, but
now their authority is purely spiritual.
| They are still reverenced far and wide
however. Every one in the south of the
Indo-Chinese peninsula has heard of
the Forest Kings, says M. Moura. AS
far back as records extend, the mon
archs of Cambodia have sent them a
yearly gift of considerable value until
the present reign, receiving in acknowl-
edgment a great lump of wax and two
calabashes, one filled with rice and one
with sesame. Now, it may be asserted
| with confidence that these kings are
the most mysterious and the most in
teresting of mortals. No Europeans
and very few natives have visited their
country, but the annual exchange Of
presents claimed attention when the
French undertook the protectorate of
Cambodia.
The sacred offices are hereditary On
succeeding to his dignity, king with
darWs to a certain tower, where he
lives absolutely alone, unless upon oc-
casion he attend some ceremony. He
cultivates the ground, like any other
peasant, but the Faithful bring food
and necessaries, which are placed with
in his reach. At the end of twelve
months he withdraws to another tower,
where he follows the same course of
life. There are seven of these holy res
licences, and when the king has spent a
year in each his term is over--he may
return to his family. The number sew
en- is always suspicious, and the cir
cumstances in general recall certain
fairy tales, but it is all marvellous, and
we must not regard improbabilities at
this stage of our information. 1t is re-
ported that the kings die, as rule, be-
fore their terms of Office cease, and we
may believe it--ths is touch of ma
| ture in the legend. To be regarded as
divinity is a grand position, but it
must lose it's charm, in the course of
years, for one who lives all alone in a
tower on a mountain top. Accordingly,
the royal families-there are two of
| then-do not value their privilege.
More disheartening, even, than the
| death of the kings must be the specta-
Gle of those who survive. They are
said to be idiotic mostly. We imagine
them pale skeletons, silent and scared,
strangers to their children, never able
to regain easy intercourse with man
kind. When a throne becomes vacant
the next heir often flies to the woods.
But he can rarely escape All the tribe
turn out in CONSERVATION, and when
they have recaptured their god they
compel him to serve.
At the present time the Water King
has lost all his prestige among the
| Cambodians, if not among his own peo-
ple-"On ne parle guere que du Roi de
Ecu don't les pouvoirs surnaturels no
sont jamais mis- en- doute nj surtout
ridiculiSes.' But of civil or political
authority he has not a trace, it would
| seem. At feaSts and marriages and
| sacrifices in honor of the Yam, the tri-
bal fetch. the kings are invited. They
| have a place apart. The soil and even
the path by which they approach are
| spread with white cotton. At sight of
them tHe people fall PROSTATE, believ-
ing that if they failed a storm would
desoiate the land Then they crowd
behind the kings, touching their robes
and shouting with joy. This is really
all we know as yet concerning the wor-
ship or the treatment of these strange
mortals. But they have in their charge
three talismans, which the kings even
in distant Siam fear and venerate.
These are the fruit of llama, gathered
centuries ago. but still green and fresh
a rattan, of similar virtue. and, above
ALL fetch sword-that is, a sword
tenanted by a yam. The Cambodians
believe that these objects were the re-
gala of their monarchs in the time
when all Cochin China obeyed them.
They have made various attempts to
recover the talismans believing that,
with the sword in their possession,
their lost empire would be regained.
The King of Siam also has tried to cap
ture it.
d DE tout temps ct jusquau regne ac-
tueI," says NJ. Moura, the Cambodian