III.] PALACE OF THE LIU-KIU KINGS. 53 



for a large reception-hall hung round with taljlets, which our little 

 friend eyed with great complacency. They were of red lacquer, of 

 a peculiarly deep, rich colour, emblazoned in gold with the names 

 of the Liu-kiu kings. They date back for about two hundred years, 

 but though history records the dates and reigns of the sovereigns of 

 the islands for many centuries, this present custom appears to have 

 been of recent adoption. Xo tablet commemorates the name of 

 him who has closed the list for ever, and my inquiry as to its 

 future position was met by a smile of amusement.^ 



We went out and rested, watching the sturdy little Ijeasts of 

 burden who had brought us up so well. They smoked and chatted 

 in groups, and were evidently discussing the distinguished foreigners 

 whom it was their privilege to carry — a doubtful honour with a 

 temperature near the nineties, and a hill of no ordinary steepness 

 before them. It was pleasant enough, however, beneath the shade 

 of the large pine-trees, which here formed a thick dark gTOve, re- 

 calling, with its aromatic smell and soft carpet of pine needles the 

 scenery of more northern latitudes. This tree (? Pinus massoniana), 

 is one of the most characteristic features of the landscape in Liu- 

 kiu, and is singularly cedar -like in appearance, with its wide- 

 spreading horizontal branches. Below us, the waving fields of green 

 paddy fell away gradually to Napha-kiang, whose red-roofed houses 

 were here and there visible among the dark foliage. The harbour 

 lay like a map beyond, calm under the sweltering heat ; and away 

 westwards agamst the horizon rose the dim outlines of the Kerama 

 Islands. It was, in its quiet unobtrusive beauty, as charming a 

 view as one could wish to see. 



From the little palace — the somewhat gloomy memorial of the 

 mutability of dynasties — the road leads up with a steep gradient to 



1 Li Ting-yuen, the Chinese envoy, sent in 1801 by the Emperor Kiaking to 

 invest the king with the full sovereignty, recounts how they burnt silvered paper 

 before these royal tablets. "Each one," he says, "is called shin-chu, deified lord, 

 and is known by his own name (i.e. they have no posthumous temple name, as is the 

 custom in China and Japan), except four, who were the most renowned, and are called 

 by posthumous titles. " 



