CHAPTER XIV.
THE CHIEF EUNUCH.
About the middle of the seventeenth day we passed through a dark and gloomy teak forest and came to a place where two stone towers stood, one on either side of our road. Just behind these towers some fifty tents were pitched, and a herd of elephants and horses were browsing near them. The tents bore streamers with the Sacred Ape of Kai embroidered upon them, and a throng of natives in gay costumes stood in a group awaiting us.
“What’s up?” I called to Mai Lo, whose elephant was ambling close behind our own.
“These pillars,” said he, “mark the boundary of Kwang-Kai-Nong. When we pass them I shall be in my own territory.”
“Oh, and are these your people?” I inquired.
“Yes. I have sent messengers ahead to warn them of my coming. So they are here to receive the body of their prince.”
As we continued to advance the group stood motionless, and I had leisure to examine them. They were finely formed fellows, tall and athletic, and many of them wore beards, some jet black, some gray, some snow white. It was easy to see that this reception committee was composed of the best element of the Kaitos, probably most of them nobles and holding important offices in the principality.
The mahout in charge of the elephant which bore the casket of the Prince now urged his beast slightly in advance of our party, and, as it passed the gateway marked by the towering pillars, the members of the group prostrated themselves and with loud wails and groans grabbed up the dust from the road and scattered it over their bowed heads and bodies, until they were a sight to behold. Then they raised themselves to their knees, extended their arms skyward, and howled in concert like so many coyotes. The din was ear-splitting, and while it continued Mai Lo descended from his elephant and groveled with the others in the dust before the casket of Prince Kai.
Then two aged Kaitos advanced and raised the governor, and escorted him to a tent. The others continued their cries until the casket had been lifted from the elephant and conveyed into another tent—the largest and most decorated one of the encampment.
During this time we had remained unnoted observers of the scene; but when the casket disappeared behind the walls of the tent the people, having risen and dusted themselves, began to look upon us with curiosity. Nux and Bryonia, who had dismounted with the casket and stood like ebony statues beside the elephant, attracted most of the scrutiny, but bore the ordeal with much dignity.