268 
Civil and %lilitary Establishments. 
sufficient to dazzle the natives of Candy, are no better tlian 
the colours of a marching regiment. ' 
Loud noise, which seems to enter into all the ideas of gran- 
deur among a barbarous people, is never omitted in the train 
of the monarch. His progress is always attended by a num- 
ber of performers on various instruments, such as tom-toms,^ 
or drams of various sizes, shrill and squalling clarionets, pipes, 
flagelets, a' sort of bagpipes, and pieces of brass and iron jm- 
gled by way of triangles. The discordant noise produced by 
all these, sounded and clashed at once, without the smallest at- 
tention to time or harmony, is extremely disagreeable to the 
ears of a European. 
But the most remarkable attendants of the monarch are a 
set of people furnished with long whips of a peculiar kind, 
who keep running before the procession with strange gestures 
like madmen, to clear the way, and announce the approach of 
the king. The whips are made of hemp, coya, grass, or hair, 
and consist of a thong or lash from eight to twelve feet Imig, 
without any handle. The loud noise which the forerunners 
produce with their whips, as well as the dexterity wdth which 
they avoid touching those who come in their way ; is truly 
astonisliing ; although an European, from the indiscriminate 
manner in which they appear to deal their lashes, cannot help 
feeling alarmed for his safety. In all the interviews which the 
embassy I attended had at the court of Candy, the ceremony of 
the whip-crackers was never omitted, to the great annoyance 
of our troops, wdio where very sulky and displeased on the oc- 
casion. Indeed it w’as impossible for the men under arms to 
attend to what they wnre about while these long whips were 
kept coRtinually brandishing and cracking about their ears ; 
