rable amount of traffic, pedestrian and vehicular, on the various
roads; and when the news of our arrival spread through the valley--which
it appeared to do with marvellous celerity--this traffic increased a
hundredfold at least, so that within an hour of our arrival it seemed as
though every man, woman, and child in the valley had turned out to stare
at us. And I confess that I was by no means favourably impressed with
the manner in which the men at least of Masakisale regarded my
appearance among them, for if I correctly interpreted the expression of
their countenances it was made up, in about equal proportions, of hatred
and fear; while that of the women, on the other hand, seemed chiefly to
indicate wonder, probably at my stature, for, compared with their
fifty-four inches, my seventy-four must have appeared gigantic.

There was no difficulty at all in identifying the royal palace; for
whereas most of the other dwellings in the valley were indicated merely
by a more or less elaborately sculptured doorway hewn out of the living
rock, the abode of Queen Bimbane measured--judging by the eye alone--at
least five hundred feet long by sixty feet high, the whole surface of
which was sculptured into the form of a house front, consisting of a
doorway with window openings on either side of it, and, above that, two
other tiers of window openings giving upon wide projecting balconies,
the whole very elaborately decorated with mouldings, balusters,
architraves, pediments, columns, entablatures, and other architectural
features, in a style quite strange to me, yet very handsome and
impressive, and representing, I should say, the life's work of several
hundred masons. Moreover, there was a banner flying over the centre of
the building, consisting of a replica, upon a very much larger scale, of
that borne by the standard-bearer who accompanied my escort.

This remarkable building--if indeed it may so be called--was situated
about three miles down the valley, on its western side and consequently
facing east, so that for the greater part of the day it was in shadow,
while every one of its window openings was shaded from the morning sun
by awnings of some material (which I afterward found was silk) arranged
in alternate stripes of green and white. I sighted and identified it at
a distance of more than a mile away; and when we arrived opposite it I
found that, as of course might be expected, one of the intersecting
roads crossing th