a new king takes place, however long it may be before that
event may happen. They are generally girls of from ten to fourteen
years of age, and are, while mourners, held sacred and inviolate.

"_Sunday, March 4th_.--This day was appointed for the formal election
of a successor to the throne of King George. By noon, the whole of the
chiefs and headmen were assembled in the Palaver House, when the
Regent, or person appointed to administer the government during the
_interregnum_, proposed, in a speech of some length, John Macaulay
Wilson to be the future King of the Boollams. Previous to this, a
deputation had been sent requesting my presence. I accordingly
attended in full dress, along with Mr. S----. The Regent's speech, as
literally translated by my interpreter, and immediately after noted
down by me, was as follows:--

"'We have now met, headmen and brethren, to perform a great duty, and
to exercise a great privilege. It becomes our duty to elect a
successor to our vacant throne, "the cry" (i.e. the mourning) being
about to close. We have now no king; if we look to his hearth, there
is no one there; if we call upon our king, no one answers; thus are
we, as children without a father; as a family without a head; whom
then shall we choose to sit in the seat of our late venerable king?
Who shall walk in the footsteps of him, whose sayings were the sayings
of wisdom, and out of whose mouth proceeded justice: whom, I say,
shall we elect, but his own son[14], who listened to him when alive,
and who will not forget him now that he is dead?

"'You have long known this person; and you know that he will not bring
disgrace upon your choice; but that he will do those things which a
King of the Boollams ought to do; that he will discourage wickedness,
encourage the righteous, and do justice to all men; I therefore
propose that John Macaulay Wilson be elected King of the
Boollams.'[15] The speaker of the above was an old man, highly
respected by all classes, named, 'Nain Banna.' It becomes his duty,
immediately on the king's death, to assume the government as Regent;
he is, however, on that account ineligible for the throne.

"After some conversation among the chiefs, consisting principally of
tributes of praise to the late king, it was formerly announced to me,
'that John Macaulay Wilson was elected King of the Boollams:--that he
held the Boollam Country in