FURTHER CLASS-DISTINCTIONS. 205 



king s coronation, &quot; a page comes forward and presents to 

 the king the seven-storied umbrella, the savetraxat or 

 primary symbol of royalty.&quot; And when the emperor of 

 China leaves his palace, he is accompanied by twenty men 

 bearing large umbrellas and twenty fan-bearers. Else 

 where umbrellas, not monopolized by kings, may be used by 

 others, but with differences ; as in Java, where custom pre 

 scribes six colours for the umbrellas of six ranks. Evi 

 dently the shade-yielding umbrella is closely allied to the 

 shade-yielding canopy; the use of which also is a class-dis 

 tinction. Ancient America furnished a good instance. 

 In Utlatlan the king sat under four canopies, the &quot; elect &quot; 

 under three, the chief captain under two, and the second 

 captain under one. And here we are reminded that this de 

 veloped form of the umbrella, having four supports, is 

 alike in the East and in Europe, used in exaltation of both 

 the divine ruler and the human ruler: in the one region 

 borne by attendants over kings and supported in a more per 

 manent manner over the cars in which idols are drawn ; and 

 in the other used alike in state-processions and ecclesiastical 

 processions, to shade now the monarch and now the Host. 



Of course with regulations giving to higher ranks the 

 exclusive enjoyment of the more costly conveniences, there 

 go others forbidding the inferior to have conveniences of 

 even less costly natures. For example, in Fiji the best kind 

 of mat for lying on is forbidden to the common people. In 

 Dahomey, the use of hammocks is a royal prerogative, 

 shared in only by the whites. Concerning the Siamese, 

 Bowring says: &quot; We were informed that the use of such 

 cushions [more or less ornamented, according to rank] was 

 prohibited to the people.&quot; And we learn from Bastian that 

 among the Joloffs the use of the mosquito-curtain is a royal 

 prerogative. 



420. Of sumptuary laws, those regulating the uses of 

 foods may be traced back to very early stages stages in 



