140 king's fondness foe curiosities. 
new moon, lie sat concealed, all but his head, in the 
doorway of his chief hut, and received the salutations 
of his people, who, one by one, shrieked and sprang in 
front of him, swearing allegiance. His head on these 
occasions was wonderfully dressed, and made to look 
quite patriarchal, with a crown of beads and feathers, 
and a false white beard of considerable length, giving 
him the look of an Indian " khitmutgar " or Jewish 
rabbi. He was very fond of curiosities, and amongst 
the collection he had obtained from Arab visitors were 
stuffed birds, an electric battery, looking-glasses, a 
clock with eyes in the cast-iron figure made to roll 
with the movement of the pendulum, &c. He expressed 
surprise that we had brought nothing to amuse him, 
so that all our ingenuity was put to the test in order 
to try and gratify his highness. A jumping-jack 
made of wood was sent him for his infant son, and 
he said he must have me make him one the size of 
life before I left the country. He had a three-pounder 
brass gun brought him unmounted from the coast ; 
and on a picture being sent him, showing how we in 
India drag guns into action by means of elephants, 
nothing would satisfy him till he had ordered fifty 
men to cut down trees, to be made into a gun-carriage. 
I protested, saying, " You have no iron — no elephant ; 
who is to make the wheels?" Here was a dilemma — 
a wheel to make before I could be allowed to join my 
companion, and nothing to make it with but a pen- 
knife in my pocket ! Luckily my friend Eumanika 
was not pig-headed, and had compassion on me when 
it was explained to him that ropes of bark, and men 
to drag the gun, would not answer the purposes of 
iron and elephant. 
