76 ARISTOCRATIC GUESTS. 



gesticulation ; his remarks were shrewd, and 

 gave us a favourable opinion of his intellectual 

 powers. We acquitted his toilet of having oc- 

 casioned any delay in our reception ; for his 

 only vesture was a scanty cloth, covering the hips, 

 and a cotton handkerchief, folded as a turban 

 on the head. In one corner of the apartment, 

 a tall and delicately-formed female was engaged 

 in bruising betel-nut in a small silver mortar, 

 and in preparing relays of this luxury for the 

 rajah, whom she occasionally approached, to 

 present her offering, with a timid supplicating 

 look, and a crouching attitude, highly expres- 

 sive of slavish awe. 



After a short conversation on general topics, 

 during which arrack and cocoa-nut milk were 

 offered for our refreshment, we took our leave 

 of the rajah, and were conducted by Don Simon 

 to his own residence, a very modest dwelling, 

 surrounded by a garden, neatly planted with Eu- 

 ropean and other exotic vegetables. Tea, tur- 

 tle-eggs, honey, and fruits, were here spread for 

 our evening meal ; and a ramble through the 

 village concluded the day. 



On the 21st, the rajah and his grandson dined 

 on board the Tuscan, by invitation. They came 

 attended by a large suite of slaves and followers, 

 bearing umbrellas, betel-nut, the apparatus for 



