Page:First Voyage Round the World.djvu/237

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CHINA.
157

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 vassalage, each is obliged to have in the middle of the principal place of his city the marble figure of a certain animal named Chinga, an animal more valiant 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 attitude 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 peacock most skilfully manufactured, and very richly adorned, with six ladies dressed exactly like himself, so that he cannot be distinguished from them. He afterwards passes into a richly-adorned figure of a serpent called Naga, which has a large glass 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 round 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[1] with Satubagan; at the second a dog called Satuhain;[2] at the third, a man with an iron mace, called Satuhoran with pocumbecin;[3] at the fourth, a man with a bow in his hand, called Satuhoran with anatpanan;[4] at the fifth, a man with

  1. "Satu orang," one man.
  2. "Anjing," a dog.
  3. "Pokoh bisi," club of iron.
  4. "Panah", a bow.