Ethnic Chinese devotees towed a giant replica of a royal barge on a wheeled platform through a Malaysian city on Thursday in a rare and colorful procession aimed at collecting and banishing evil spirits. Steeped in religious and cultural rites, the Wangkang — or royal ship — procession snaked along a 9-kilometer (6-mile) route in the historic city of Malacca with 22 stops where priests performed cleansing rituals to command evil spirits and other negative influences to board the boat.