and would never rest until his
diabolical purpose was accomplished. Several times I met him in various
parts of the valley, and, invariably, whenever he descried me, he came
running after me with his mallet and chisel, flourishing them about my
face as if he longed to begin. What an object he would have made of me!

When the king first expressed his wish to me, I made known to him my utter
abhorrence of the measure, and worked myself into such a state of
excitement, that he absolutely stared at me in amazement. It evidently
surpassed his majesty's comprehension how any sober-minded and sensible
individual could entertain the least possible objection to so beautifying
an operation.

Soon afterwards he repeated his suggestion, and meeting with a like
repulse, showed some symptoms of displeasure at my obduracy. On his a
third time renewing his request, I plainly perceived that something must
be done, or my visage was ruined for ever; I therefore screwed up my
courage to the sticking point, and declared my willingness to have both
arms tattooed from just above the wrist to the shoulder. His majesty was
greatly pleased at the proposition, and I was congratulating myself with
having thus compromised the matter, when he intimated that as a thing of
course my face was first to undergo the operation. I was fairly driven to
despair; nothing but the utter ruin of my "face divine," as the poets call
it, would, I perceived, satisfy the inexorable Mehevi and his chiefs, or
rather that infernal Karky, for he was at the bottom of it all.

The only consolation afforded me was a choice of patterns: I was at
perfect liberty to have my face spanned by three horizontal bars, after
the fashion of my serving-man's; or to have as many oblique stripes
slanting across it: or if, like a true courtier, I chose to model my style
on that of royalty, I might wear a sort of freemason badge upon my
countenance in the shape of a mystic triangle. However, I would have none
of these, though the king most earnestly impressed upon my mind that my
choice was wholly unrestricted. At last, seeing my unconquerable
repugnance, he ceased to importune me.

But not so some other of the savages. Hardly a day passed but I was
subjected to their annoying requests, until at last my existence became a
burden to me; the pleasures I had previously enjoyed no longer afforded me
delight, and all my former desire to escape from the valley now revived
with additional force