That Awful Day Will Surely Come

1907

The Congregation Smiled

Two country clergymen had agreed to exchange pulpits on a certain date. One of them made the following solemn announcement to his congregation on the Sabbath previous to the event:

"My dear brethren and sisters, I have the pleasure of stating that on next Sunday morning the Rev. Zachariah B. Day will preach for you. Let us now sing two verses of hymn No. 489, 'That Awful Day Will Surely Come.'"

And it took him some time to discover why the congregation smiled.


A Queer Custom

Curious Basket Ceremony of Siamese Ancestral Worship

If the "basket supper" of worthy tradition is a feature of New England church sociability, the orient has a fashion of its own connected with baskets, and religious ceremony. Mary Cost, in her book on Siam, tells of a custom which forms a mysterious part of Siamese ancestral worship.

The ceremony is called krachat, which means basket. When the time for observing it is at hand, the king commands the princess to make large baskets and to buy articles with which to fill them. Around the palace booths are built, covered with red and white cloth, and here the baskets are displayed. The king himself goes out to inspect them.

The baskets are filled with all sorts of things, from rice, sweetmeats, sugar, cakes and onions to articles of a more lasting nature. The baskets are woven in all sorts of curious shapes. One may be in the form of a cart hauled by two buffaloes covered with tobacco instead of hair and with many useful things in the cart. Tree baskets have all sorts of articles hanging to the branches, such as saws, knives, handkerchiefs, and so forth. Bushel baskets are pierced with doors, in and out of which run automatic dolls covered with coins. Some of the baskets are immense, being sixteen feet long.

The show lasts a week, at the end of which the priests draw lots for the spoil.