The
Dresses Were All Real Hand-Worked Gold And Silver Embroidery On Thick
Silks Of The Richest Colors.
The princes were attended by their
warriors, some of whose helmets and arms were magnificent, with banners
and feather
Standards, and coats of arms, or their equivalents, borne
aloft by heralds; ladies also appeared, one a prima-donna, other
actresses rode hobby-horses, only the head of the woman and hobby-horse
being visible in the clouds of silk and gold. Jesters jested; and
tumblers, in blue, loose tunics and wide scarlet trousers, shot across
the stage when there was any room in front of the crowd of actors with
the rapidity of meteors. The pace was too great to be even sure that
they were human beings. I have seen Kean's Shakespearian revival
pageants formerly in London, but I never realized what a mediaeval
court pageant might have been till in the heart of the Malay Peninsula
I saw the most gorgeous combination of color and picturesque effect
that I have ever set eyes upon."]
Klang does not improve on further acquaintance. It looks as if half the
houses were empty, and certainly half the population is composed of
Government employes, chiefly police constables. There is no air of
business energy, and the queerly mixed population saunters with limp
movements; even the few Chinese look depressed, as if life were too
much for them. It looks too as if there were a need for holding down
the population (which I am sure there isn't), for in addition to the
fort and its barracks, military police stations are dotted about.
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