Salaam.
His Majesty, the King of Timbuktu, is seated on his throne at one end of the room with a page close at hand. Four or five people have been asked to leave the room and to come in one at a time as called, in order to be presented to His Majesty. The first one is called in, brought before the king, told to bow deeply before him three times, each time saying, “I pledge allegiance to my king.” He is told too, that the deeper his bow, the greater his favor with the king. He bows once, then again, and then a third time. His allegiance gets a bit chilled however during the third bow, for the page has provided the king with a small piece of ice, which is gently but firmly applied to the back of the neck during the third bow.