This Non-Interventive Order Was Part Of The Royal
Policy, In Order That The King Might Have The Full Fleecing Of
His Visitors.
To call upon the queen-mother respectfully, as it was the opening
visit, I too, besides the medicine-chest, a present of eight
brass and copper wire, thirty blue-egg beads, one bundle of
diminutive beads, and sixteen cubits of chintz, a small guard,
and my throne of royal grass.
The palace to be visited lay half
a mile beyond the king's, but the highroad to it was forbidden
me, as it is considered uncourteous to pass the king's gate
without going in. So after winding through back-gardens, the
slums of Bandowaroga, I struck upon the highroad close to her
majesty's, where everything looked like the royal palace on a
miniature scale. A large cleared space divided the queen's
residence from her Kamraviona's. The outer enclosures and courts
were fenced with tiger-grass; and the huts, though neither so
numerous nor so large, were constructed after the same fashion as
the king's. Guards also kept the doors, on which large bells
were hung to give alarm, and officers in waiting watched the
throne-rooms. All the huts were full of women, save those kept
as waiting-rooms; where drums and harmonicons were played for
amusement. On first entering, I was required to sit in a
waiting-hut till my arrival was announced; but that did not take
long, as the queen was prepared to receive me; and being of a
more affable disposition than her son, she held rather a levee of
amusement than a stiff court of show.
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