chap, xxiii THE KING OF BANTAM 275
the
whole was well pounded she placed her hand on the King's back, who at
once opened his mouth, and she put the betel in with her fingers as
women do who give pap to their infants,1 because the King had no teeth ; for he had eaten so much betel, and smoked so much tobacco, that his teeth had fallen out.
The
palace of the King of Bantam did not need a very skilful architect. It
is a square building surrounded by small lacquered pillars of different
colours, 2 feet in height, against which one leans when seated. There
are at the four corners large pillars planted in the earth at 40 feet
distance from each other, and the floor is covered by a mat woven of
the bark of a kind of tree, as if it were a piece of cloth, and neither
fleas nor bugs will approach it. The roof is of coco-nut fronds. Close
by, under another roof, sustained also by four large pillars, there
were sixteen elephants, the most courageous of those which the King
keeps—for he has a large number of them—-which are destined for war and
do not fear fireworks. For his guard he has about 2,000 men, who were
seated in squads under the shade of some trees. They are good soldiers
both on sea and land, strict Musalmans who do not fear death. His
harem, where his women dwell, must be a small affair, for when he had
seen what I had brought he summoned two old black women, to whom he
gave some of the jewels to show them to his wives. The two old women
entered by a miserable door, and the place was enclosed only by a kind
of palisade, with earth mixed with cow-dung between the posts. I
observed that nothing which he sent by these women was brought back,
this made me conclude that I should stick to the price. Thus I sold him
profitably what he took from me, and I was paid at once. After having
drunk a cup of sherbet—while my brother drank spirits with the King—we
took leave of him, and he made us promise that, on the following day
towards evening, we should return to see him, because he wished to show
me a dagger which he was having made after the Turkish fashion,
1
Ball saw the famous hairy woman of Mandalay being supplied with betel
by her Burmese attendant in much the same way; being blind, the packet
had to be prepared for her and placed in her mouth.
T 2
