CAMBODIA.—ITS CAPITAL AND KING.
Having studied ancient Cambodia, Frank and Fred were desirous of learning something of the modern country of that name. At the hotel where they were stopping they found a gentleman who had recently been at Panompin, the Cambodian capital, and had spent sufficient time there to be able to give a good account of it. As soon as he found that his young acquaintances were anxious to hear about Cambodia, he promptly consented to enlighten them.
He was at leisure one evening after dinner, and, by mutual consent, the party gathered on the veranda in front of the hotel, and an hour was pleasantly passed in conversation regarding the little-known country.
A CAMBODIAN IDOL.
"If you think," said the gentleman, "that Panompin is a large city, as one naturally thinks of the capital of a country, you would be greatly disappointed if you went there.
"Its population is not more than twenty or twenty-five thousand, and is made up of several nationalities. There are Siamese, Chinese, Anamese, and Manilla men among the inhabitants, as well as the native Cambodians, and there are no long streets of fine buildings, such as you would expect a capital to contain. It is situated on the banks of the Mesap, a small river of Cambodia that empties into the Mekong: the greater part of Panompin is on the right bank of the stream, but there is a small portion of it on the opposite shore, and another on an island near the junction of the Mesap with the Mekong. To locate it on the map, you must put your finger at about latitude 11° 30' north, and longitude 105° east, and if your map is a good one, you will find a large lake not far off.
