The King Of Pegu Has One
Principal Wife, Who Lives In A Seraglio Along With 300 Concubines, And
He Is Said To Have 90 Children.
He sits every day in person to hear the
suits of his people, yet he nor they never speak together.
The king
sits up aloft on a high seat or tribunal in a great hall, and lower down
sit all his barons round about. Those that demand audience enter into
the great court or hall in presence of the king, and sit down on the
ground at forty paces from the king, holding their supplications in
their hands, written on the leaves of a tree three quarters of a yard
long and two fingers broad, on which the letters are written or
inscribed by means of a sharp stile or pointed iron. On these occasions
there is no respect of persons, all of every degree or quality being
equally admitted to audience. All suitors hold up their supplication in
writing, and in their hands a present or gift, according to the
importance of their affairs. Then come the secretaries, who take the
supplications from the petitioners and read them to the king; and if he
thinks good to grant the favour or justice which they desire, he
commands to have the gifts taken from their hands; but if he considers
their request not just or reasonable, he commands them to depart without
receiving their presents.
There is no commodity in the Indies worth bringing to Pegu, except
sometimes the opium of Cambay, and if any one bring money he is sure to
lose by it.
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