TO SEREKEI. 361 



burst ; but this time the important epistle was landed 

 without accident. The bearer of the letter and its atten- 

 dants soon reached the room, and the letter-carrier 

 seated himself, or rather knelt before a chair at the 

 farther end of the chamber, which was covered with 

 beautiful Sirhassen mats : similar ones were placed on 

 the right of the chair for our use, the adopted son of 

 the Patingi sitting with us. 



We had been all thus placed about ten minutes, and 

 I was anxiously watching the hangings of the room, 

 expecting the chief immediately to make his appear- 

 ance, when I heard his nephew and adopted son, 

 a fine-looking youth, dressed in silks and gold, ask 

 Williamson if the letter might now be opened. On his 

 giving assent, the person who had charge of it, on his 

 knees, and with his head bent on the ground, placed 

 the salver containing it upon the chair, with many 

 tokens of respect, intended, I suppose, both for the 

 letter and the representative of the Patingi, which the 

 chair undoubtedly was. Another person then shuffled 

 to the chair on his hands and knees, and took the letter 

 which was finally opened and read to an admiring 

 audience ; but few remarks were made upon it, as 

 though it had been read to the representative of the 

 Patingi, the chief himself had not heard its contents. 



The chair, which had been so conspicuous through 

 these proceedings, was neither a new chair, nor a good 

 chair, but a very old and very bad one. It was so 

 small, that it could not have contained the portly person 

 of the chief, though it was thought sufficiently large for 



