ing, as usual, we waited on Her Majesty and reported anything
of interest which had occurred during the previous day. Then we all
preceded Her Majesty to the theatre, where we awaited her arrival
standing in the courtyard. On Her Majesty appearing, we would all kneel
down until she had passed into the building opposite the stage, kneeling
in rows--first the Emperor, behind him the Young Princess, next the
Secondary wife, then the Princesses and Court ladies, and last of all
the visitors. The first two days everything went of all right, but
on the third morning the Emperor, from whom we received the signal,
suddenly turned and said: "Her Majesty is coming." Down we all went on
our knees, the Emperor alone remaining standing and laughing at us.
Of course there was no sign of Her Majesty and everybody joined in the
laugh. He was never so happy as when he could work off a joke like this.

On the evening of the ninth, none of the Court ladies went to bed, as we
all had to be up betimes on the morning of the tenth. The visitors were
told to proceed by chair to Her Majesty's special Audience Hall on the
top of the hill, where they were to await our arrival. They arrived at
the Audience Hall at three o'clock in the morning, and we followed
soon afterwards, arriving there about daybreak. By and bye Her Majesty
arrived and the ceremony commenced. This ceremony in no way differed
from the one previously described in connection with the Emperor's
birthday, so there is no need to give particulars, except one thing.
Very early on the morning of the tenth, we had to bring another present
to her and each of us brought a hundred birds of various kinds. Each
year, on her birthday, Her Majesty did a very peculiar thing. She would
buy 10,000 birds with her own money, from her private purse and set them
free. It was a very pretty sight to see those huge cages hung in the
courtyard of the Audience Hall. Her Majesty would select the most lucky
hour and order the eunuchs to carry the cages and to follow her. The
hour selected was four o'clock in the afternoon. Her Majesty took the
whole Court with her to the top of the hill, where there was a Temple.
First she burnt sandal wood and offered up prayers to the Gods, then the
eunuchs, each with a cage of birds, knelt in front of Her Majesty and
she opened each cage one after another and watched the birds fly away,
and prayed to the Gods that these birds should not be caught again.
Her Majesty did t