第100章 THE KING OF APEMAMA:THE PALACE OF MANY WOMENTHE(2)

In all my coming and going,I never heard him speak harshly or express the least displeasure.An extreme,rather heavy,benignity -the benignity of one sure to be obeyed -marked his demeanour;so that I was at times reminded of Samual Richardson in his circle of admiring women.The wives spoke up and seemed to volunteer opinions,like our wives at home -or,say,like doting but respectable aunts.Altogether,I conclude that he rules his seraglio much more by art than terror;and those who give a different account (and who have none of them enjoyed my opportunities of observation)perhaps failed to distinguish between degrees of rank,between 'my pamily'and the hangers-on,laundresses,and prostitutes.

A notable feature is the evening game of cards when lamps are set forth upon the terrace,and 'I and my pamily'play for tobacco by the hour.It is highly characteristic of Tembinok'that he must invent a game for himself;highly characteristic of his worshipping household that they should swear by the absurd invention.It is founded on poker,played with the honours out of many packs,and inconceivably dreary.But I have a passion for all games,studied it,and am supposed to be the only white who ever fairly grasped its principle:a fact for which the wives (with whom I was not otherwise popular)admired me with acclamation.It was impossible to be deceived;this was a genuine feeling:they were proud of their private game,had been cut to the quick by the want of interest shown in it by others,and expanded under the flattery of my attention.Tembinok'puts up a double stake,and receives in return two hands to choose from:a shallow artifice which the wives (in all these years)have not yet fathomed.He himself,when talking with me privately,made not the least secret that he was secure of winning;and it was thus he explained his recent liberality on board the EQUATOR.He let the wives buy their own tobacco,which pleased them at the moment.He won it back at cards,which made him once more,and without fresh expense,that which he ought to be,-the sole fount of all indulgences.And he summed the matter up in that phrase with which he almost always concludes any account of his policy:'Mo'betta.'

The palace compound is laid with broken coral,excruciating to the eyes and the bare feet,but exquisitely raked and weeded.A score or more of buildings lie in a sort of street along the palisade and scattered on the margin of the terrace;dwelling-houses for the wives and the attendants,storehouses for the king's curios and treasures,spacious maniap's for feast or council,some on pillars of wood,some on piers of masonry.One was still in hand,a new invention,the king's latest born:a European frame-house built for coolness inside a lofty maniap':its roof planked like a ship's deck to be a raised,shady,and yet private promenade.It was here the king spent hours with Rubam;here I would sometimes join them;the place had a most singular appearance;and I must say I was greatly taken with the fancy,and joined with relish in the counsels of the architects.