I
expressed my thanks suitably and inquired if I might have audience of the king.
The prime minister readjusted his turban--it had fallen off in the struggle--
and assured me that the king would be very pleased to see me. Therefore I
dispatched two bottles as a foretaste, and when the sheep had entered upon
another incarnation, climbed up to the king's palace through the wet. He had
sent his army to escort me, but it stayed to talk with my cook. Soldiers are
very much alike all the world over.
The palace was a four-roomed, white-washed mud-and-timber house, the finest in
all the Hills for a day's journey. The king was dressed in a purple velvet
jacket, white muslin trousers, and a saffron-yellow turban of price. He gave me
audience in a little carpeted room opening off the palace courtyard, which was
occupied by the elephant of state. The great beast was sheeted and anchored
from trunk to tail, and the curve of his back stood out against the sky line.
The prime minister and the director-general of public instruction were present
to introduce me; but all the court had been dismissed lest the two bottles
aforesaid should corrupt their morals. The king cast a wreath of heavy, scented
flowers round my neck as I bowed, and inquired how my honored presence had the
felicity to be.
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