CHAPTER V - BHUTAN: NEGOTIATIONS

Summary

INTERVIEW WITH THE DEB RAJAH.

On the day fixed to receive me I walked to the palace of the Deb Rajah. If there is any pleasure in being gazed at, I had enough of it. Being the first European they had ever seen in these parts, the windows of the palace and the road that led to it were crowded with spectators. I dare say there were 3000. After passing through three courts, and climbing two iron-plated ladders, I was carried into an antechamber hung round with bows and arrows, swords, matchlocks, cane-coiled targets, and other implements of war, and filled with a number of priests, servants, &c., squatted down in different places. Having waited here about half an hour, I was conducted to the Rajah. He was seated upon a throne, or pulpit, if you please (for that is what it is like), raised about two feet from the ground. At entering I made him three low bows, instead of as many prostrations, with which, according to the etiquette of this court, I ought to have approached him. I then walked up and gave him a white satin handkerchief, while my servants laid my presents of spices, cloths, cutlery, &c., before him; after which I was conducted to a cushion prepared for me at the opposite end of the room. As all this passed in a profound silence, I had now time to get over a kind of flurry which it had occasioned.