8 THE KING'S MAHOUT 



ployment of a capable man to look after the up- 

 country rattan interests, combined to place the 

 name of Lee Boon Jew & Son among the foremost 

 traders of the city. 



I knew Lee weeks before I met Choo; and the 

 first time I saw the latter was in the royal stables 

 within the king's enclosure where I was giving 

 rather disrespectful scrutiny to the sacred white 

 elephants, which, notwithstanding surroundings 

 and attendants, impressed me only because of 

 seeming insignificance in their washed out hide 

 and pale blue eyes. I immediately lost interest in 

 the elephants on discovering Choo. Even had his 

 obviously at home air failed to attract my wander- 

 ing gaze, his dress would have arrested my eye, 

 for it was the most resplendent thing in the way 

 of native costume I had seen outside the palace. 

 Not that it was so rich or remarkable in itself, 

 but because the average Siamese is poor and dirty 

 and inconspicuously, not to say sombrely, clad; 

 whereas Choo was clean and brilliant and well fed. 

 He wore a red and blue check panung,* a yellow 



* The panung is a strip of cloth or silk three yards long and a 

 yard broad. It is put on by a turn about the waist, the end being 

 then carried between the legs and up through the waist and down 

 through the legs again before fastened finally to the waist, to thus 

 make a pair of loose, baggy knee breeches that, however, open up 

 the back of the leg as the wearer walks. Fashioned in this way, 

 the panung is worn by both men and women. 



