Each year with banner, trumpet, and drum
To Siam the trains with the tribute come;
Many thousand camels, with backs piled high
With the costliest treasures of earth, draw nigh.
When the camels he sees with their heavy piles,
The soul of the King in secret smiles;
But in public in truth he always deplores
That his storehouses serve not to hold all his stores.
Yet these storehouses all are so lofty and spacious,
So full of magnificence, so capacious,
The reality’s splendour surpasses in glory
The Arabian Nights’ most wondrous story.
The “Castle of Indra” call they the hall
In which are display’d the deities all,
The golden images, chisell’d with care,
And all incrusted with jewels so fair.
Full thirty thousand their numbers are,
Their ugliness passes description far;
A compound of men and animals dread,
With many a hand and many a head.
In the “Hall of purple” one wond’ringly sees
Some thirteen hundred coral trees,
As big as palms, a singular sight,
With spiral branches, a forest bright.
The floor of purest crystal is made,
And all the trees are in it display’d,
While pheasants of glittering plumage gay
Strut up and down in a dignified way.
The ape on which the monarch doth dote
A ribbon of silk wears round his throat,
Whence hangs the key that opens the hall
Which people the “Chamber of Slumber” call.
All kinds of jewels of value high
All over the ground here scatter’d lie
Like common peas, with diamonds rare
That in size with the egg of a fowl compare.
On sacks that stuff’d with pearls appear
The Monarch is wont to stretch himself here;
The ape lies down by the monarch proud,
And both of them slumber and snore aloud.