colors, who helped make home happy for the Sultan of Culion,
who after all, well supplied as he might at first seem to be, was only
a sort of fourth-class sovereign, so far as sultanas are concerned,
since his fellow monarch on a neighboring larger island, the Sultan
of Sulu, is said to have four hundred wives.

Ahmeya, though, Mateo went on to inform me, was the only one of
the fourteen who really counted. She was neither the oldest nor the
youngest of the wives of the reigning ruler, but she had developed
a mind of her own which had made her supreme in the palace, and
besides, she was the only one of his wives who had borne a son to
the monarch. For her own talents, and as the mother of the heir,
the people did her willing homage.

When I saw the royal cavalcade go past my door I had no idea I would
ever have a chance to become more intimately acquainted with Her
Majesty, but only a little while after that circumstances made it
possible for me to see more of the royal family than had probably
been the privilege of any other white man. How little thought I had,
when the acquaintance began, of the strange experiences it would
eventually lead to!

At that time, in the course of collecting natural history
specimens, most of my time for three years was spent in the island
of Culion. Having a large stock of drugs, for use in my work, and
quite a lot of medicines, I had doctored Mateo and two or three
other fellows who had worked for me, when they had been ill, with
the result that I found I had come to have a reputation for medical
skill which sometimes was inconvenient. I had no idea how widely my
fame had spread, though, until one morning Mateo came into my room
and woke me, and with a face which expressed a good deal of anxiety,
informed me that I was sent for to come to the palace.

I confess I felt some concern myself, and should have felt more if I
had had as much experience then as I had later, for one never knows
what those three-quarters savage potentates may take it into their
heads to do.

When I found that I was sent for because the Sultan was ill,--ill unto
death, the messenger had made Mateo believe,--and I was expected to
doctor him, I did not feel much more comfortable, for I much doubted if
my knowledge of diseases, and my assortment of medicines, were equal
to coping with a serious case. If the Sultan died I would probably
be beheaded, either for not keeping him alive, or for killing him.

It was a