hat the king was by no means surprised at our predicament, but ordered
a sufficient number of his people to accompany us and transport our
ivory.

"The most common mode of carriage with these people is to place the
load upon the head and, balancing it there, to walk away merrily under
their burthen. And it is surprising how heavy a load they will thus
carry. But they could not manage to take our tusks in that fashion.
They carried them on their shoulders, four men to a tusk, three near to
the thick or butt end, and one near the point. In this way we brought
all our ivory to Behar, and the tusks were so perfect and exceptional
in size that we could obtain almost any equivalent we pleased for them.
And in fact of such marvellous size and beauty were most of the gems
that we got in exchange that our fortune on our return to Bagdad
threatened to be fabulous, and it seemed evident that it would be
necessary for us to wander over the whole world to the capital of every
great king in order to find purchasers of such superb and unique
specimens.

"As we had presented many of the tusks to the king and his principal
chiefs we had become exceedingly popular--the happy possessors of our
ivory being, no less satisfied with their bargains than we felt with
ours. So that when at the end of two months we wished to depart,
having bartered or given away all our stock, they would not let us go,
but insisted that we should prolong our stay for another month, during
which they feasted and entertained us to the best of their ability.

"Now there was one circumstance concerning our vegetable ivory of which
we were ignorant, viz., that just as it was produced quickly, so it
decayed quickly. Three months had sufficed to raise it from the seed,
and within three months from the time that they came to maturity, the
apparent tusks begin to perish. Black spots and patches appear all
over the surface, and in the course of a few weeks the entire tusk rots
away and is destroyed.

"It thus happened that one morning, towards the end of our three
months' sojourn at Behar, the chiefs who came as usual to our house or
hut to greet us, wore no longer the pleasant and friendly aspect they
were wont to do, but looked surly and fierce. And immediately seizing
and binding us, they carried us before King Amavaroo, who, seated on
the leopard's skin which served him for a throne, was looking as gloomy
and morose as his followers.

"Then men came with t