Part 20 (2/2)

”He has four of his princ.i.p.al ministers close to his palace, at the four sides looking to the four cardinal winds; that is, one to the west, one to the east, to the south, and to the north. Each of these gives audience to those that come from his quarter. All the kings and lords of India major and superior obey this King, and in token of their va.s.salage, each is obliged to have in the middle of the princ.i.p.al palace of his city the marble figure of a certain animal named Chinga, an animal more valuable than the lion; the figure of this animal is also engraved on the King's seal, and all who wish to enter his port must carry the same emblem in wax or ivory.

”If any lord is disobedient to him, he is flayed, and his skin, dried in the sun, salted, and stuffed, is placed in an eminent part of the public place, with the head inclined and the hands on the head in the att.i.tude of doing zongu; that is obeisance to the King.

”He is never visible to anybody; and if he wishes to see his people he is carried about the palace on a peac.o.c.k most skillfully manufactured and very richly adorned, with six ladies dressed exactly like himself, so that he can not be distinguished from them. He afterward pa.s.ses into a richly adorned figure of a serpent called Naga, which has a large gla.s.s in the breast, through which he and the ladies are seen, but it is not possible to distinguish which is the King. He marries his sisters in order that his blood should not mix with that of others.

”His palace has seven walls around it, and in each circle there are daily ten thousand men on guard, who are changed every twelve hours at the sound of a bell. Each wall has its gate, with a guard at each gate.

At the first stands a man with a great scourge in his hand, named Satuhoran with satubagan; at the second, a dog called Satuhain; at the third, a man with an iron mace, called Satuhoran with poc.u.mbecin; at the fourth, a man with a bow in his hand, called Saturhoran with anatpanan; at the fifth, a man with a lance, called Satuhoran with tumach; at the sixth, a lion, called Saturhorimau; at the seventh, two white elephants, called Gagiapute.

”The palace contains seventy-nine halls, in which dwell only the ladies destined to serve the King; there are always torches burning there. It is not possible to go round the palace in less than a day. In the upper part of it are four halls where the ministers go to speak to the King; one is ornamented with metal, both the pavement and the walls; another is all of silver, another all of gold, and the other is set with pearls and precious stones. The gold and other valuable things which are brought as tribute to the King are placed in these rooms; and when they are there deposited, they say, 'Let this be for the honor and glory of our Santoa Raja.' All these things and many others relating to this King, were narrated to us by a Moor, who said that he had seen them.”

A palace of seven walls, seventy-nine halls, and ten thousand men on guard! A hall of silver, another of gold, and one of precious stones! It took a day to encompa.s.s it. We may well wonder how much of truth there was in this brief Oriental story!

When the adventurers came to Java they heard some tales that were marvelous, and that quite equaled those which Queen Scheherezade of the Arabian Nights told of Sinbad the Sailor.

One of these fabulous stories, told them by a pilot, had an Oriental charm and coloring. It was of a giant bird, like the roc of the Arabian Nights.

According to this fanciful legend which we give with some freedom, there was a land called Java Major on the north of the Gulf of China, where grew an enormous tree, seemingly as big as a mountain--one of the greatest trees in all the world. In this tree, which might have shaded a hill, lived a colony of birds, with wings like clouds, so broad and powerful that they could lift an elephant or a buffalo into the air and bear him away to the mountainous tree. The fruit of this tree was larger than the largest melons.

There were Moors on the s.h.i.+p where this story of the great tree and the great bird was told. One of them said:

”I have _seen_ the great bird with my own eyes!”

Another Moor said:

”One of the birds was once captured, and sent as a present to the King of Siam!”

An account of the capture of such a bird would have been very interesting!

There were great whirlpools around the mountainous tree. So that no s.h.i.+p could approach within three or four leagues of it.

But once, according to the legend, some adventurous sailors sailed near the great tree. They had a little boy on board their boat, and he must have surveyed the giant of the forest with wonder.

They sailed too near, for presently their boat began to go round and round, and they found themselves in the power of the whirlpool.

Round and round went the junk until it struck against a rock, and all on board perished, except the little boy, who was supple.

This child caught a plank and held on to it. He was carried hither and thither among the eddies and breakers, but he found himself drawing nearer and nearer the great tree. At last he was cast on sh.o.r.e at the foot of the tree.

”Here must be my home,” said he, for he thought he never could get away again. No boat could come to him, and _he_ could not fly.

The tree had great ma.s.ses of bark, so that he could climb up into it. He mounted up to its high limbs. He could not starve, for the fruit of such a tree must have been sufficient to have supplied a colony.

So cast away on the tree, he here expected to live and to die.

Toward sunset great wings like clouds darkened the s.h.i.+ning air. The birds were coming home to-night in the tree. Their nests were there as big as houses.

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