or my
opinion, which I had great difficulty in giving him. Then he wished to
show me the ruins of the former palace at the other extremity of the
gardens.

It was a real forest of stones inhabited by a large tribe of apes. On
our approach the males began to run along the walls, making the most
hideous faces at us, while the females ran away, showing their bare
rumps, and carrying off their young in their arms. The rajah shouted
with laughter and pinched my arm to draw my attention, and to testify
his own delight, and sat down in the midst of the ruins, while around
us, squatting on the top of the walls, perching on every eminence, a
number of animals with white whiskers put out their tongues and shook
their fists at us.

When he had seen enough of this, the yellow rajah rose and began to walk
sedately on, keeping me always at his side, happy at having shown me
such things on the very day of my arrival, and reminding me that a grand
tiger-hunt was to take place the next day, in my honor.

I was present at it, at a second, a third, at ten, twenty in succession.
We hunted all the animals which the country produces in turn; the
panther, the bear, elephant, antelope, the hippopotamus and the
crocodile--what do I know of, half the beasts in creation I should say.
I was disgusted at seeing so much blood flow, and tired of this
monotonous pleasure.

At length the prince's ardor abated and, at my urgent request, he left
me a little leisure for work, and contented himself by loading me with
costly presents. He sent me jewels, magnificent stuffs, and well-broken
animals of all sorts, which Haribada presented to me with apparently as
grave respect as if I had been the sun himself although he heartily
despised me at the bottom of his heart.

Every day a procession of servants brought me in covered dishes, a
portion of each course that was served at the royal table; every day he
seemed to take an extreme pleasure in getting up some new entertainment
for me--dances by the Bayaderes, jugglers, reviews of the troops, and I
was obliged to pretend to be most delighted with it, so as not to hurt
his feelings when he wished to show me his wonderful country in all its
charm and all its splendor.

As soon as I was left alone for a few moments I either worked or went to
see the monkeys, whose company pleased me a great deal better than that
of their royal master.

One evening, however, on coming back from a walk, I found Haribada
out