A PILGRIMAGE 79 



and a G-string, and enjoyed wide distinction 

 among his fellows as being the man who had 

 erected the king's tent throughout the latter 's up- 

 country pilgrimage. The honor appeared to have 

 put him in perpetual good humor with himself 

 and the world. He was always laughing or cut- 

 ting some kind of monkey shine, and in fact was 

 the cap and bells of the expedition. He seemed to 

 prefer my camp-fire to that of his own, and he and 

 our busy little Chinese cook, who never worked 

 without a fan in one hand, which he alternately 

 devoted to himself and to the fire, were constantly 

 falling foul of one another, for Si was ever playing 

 practical pranks on the Chinaman. The gem of Si's 

 earthly possessions was a short, white jacket, which 

 he informed us had been given him by the king 

 and which as his sole clothing he wore on his body 

 only on very special occasions. At all other times 

 he wore the jacket on his head fashioned into a 

 kind of turban. One day, as he tormented the 

 Chinese cook, the latter grabbed the coat-turban 

 and cut off a half of one of its sleeves before Si 

 could come to the rescue. And that was the end of 

 Si's jollity; for the remainder of the trip he was 

 content to follow demurely last of the train of 

 Barn's personal followers. 



The chief was not permitting this pilgrimage to 

 ancestral lands to move unheralded, and probably 



