The Pages All Wear Turbans Of Cord
Made From Aloe Fibres.
Should a wife commit any trifling
indiscretion, either by word or deed, she is condemned to
execution on the spot, bound by the pages and dragged out.
Notwithstanding the stringent laws for the preservation of
decorum by all male attendants, stark-naked full-grown women are
the valets.
On the first appearance of the new moon every month, the king
shuts himself up, contemplating and arranging his magic horns -
the horns of wild animals stuffed with charm-powder - for two or
three days. These may be counted his Sundays or church festivals,
which he dedicates to devotion. On other days he takes his
women, some hundreds, to bathe or sport in ponds; or, when tired
of that, takes long walks, his women running after him, when all
the musicians fall in, take precedence of the party, followed by
the Wakungu and pages, with the king in the centre of the
procession, separating the male company from the fair sex. On
these excursions no common man dare look upon the royal
procession. Should anybody by chance happen to be seen, he is at
once hunted down by the pages, robbed of everything he possessed,
and may count himself very lucky if nothing worse happens.
Pilgrimages are not uncommon, and sometimes the king spends a
fortnight yachting; but whatever he does, or wherever he goes,
the same ceremonies prevail - his musicians, Wakungu, pages, and
the wives take part in all.
But the greatest of all ceremonies takes place at the time of the
coronation.
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