240 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
nified. The Siamese Court, in short, seemed 
more consonant to our preconceived notions of 
the pride, the barbaric magnificence, and wild 
despotism of an Eastern monarch. 
His present Majesty was about forty-three 
years of age, of short stature, but of active form. 
His manners are lively and affable, but his affa¬ 
bility often degenerates into familiarity, and this 
not unfrequently of a ludicrous description. A 
favourite courtier, for example, will sometimes 
have his ears pinched, or be slapped over the 
face. Foreigners have been still more frequently 
the objects of such familiarities, because with 
them freedoms may be taken with less risk of 
compromising his authority. The King is par¬ 
tial to active sports, beyond what is usual with 
Asiatic sovereigns,—such as water excursions, 
riding on horseback and on elephants, elephant 
catching, &c. Among his out-door amusements 
there is one so boyish and so barbarous, as not 
easily to be believed, had it not been well au¬ 
thenticated :—this is the practice of riding upon 
a man’s shoulders. No saddle is made use of on 
these occasions, but for a bridle there is a strap 
of muslin put into the mouth of the honoured 
biped. Before the war, the favourite horse was 
a native of Sarwa,— a man of great bulk and 
strength, with shoulders so broad and fleshy as 
