226 AMUSEMENTS OF FUNDAH. 



With respect to any force that might exist in 

 Fundah, if any of consequence does exist, which 

 I much doubt, it must be very insignificant. On 

 two occasions, I was carried outside the walls 

 into the lovely plain, at the extremity of which 

 the town is situated, in order to witness a dis- 

 play of horsemanship, dancing, and racing, and 

 where naturally the youth and chivalry of the 

 town were assembled. But I do not think that 

 they mustered altogether fifty horses, not ten of 

 which were worth looking at twice. 



A description of these amusements may not be 

 uninteresting. I had been about a week in his 

 house, when the king sent me a message, inviting 

 me to accompany him to witness a fete which he 

 was celebrating outside the walls. It was a beauti- 

 ful morning ; the heat was tempered by a pleasant 

 breeze, as I was carried out by my Kroomen to 

 the eastern gate of the king's house. After wait- 

 ing a few minutes, listening to the most horrid 

 noises that the yeomen of the king's band could 

 perpetrate, out sallied from the interior square 

 about twenty eunuchs as the advance guard ; 

 the king followed on horseback, surrounded by 

 his musicians and body-guard of about fifty men, 

 armed with bows and arrows, and six of them 



