Friday, 10th.—Moderate breezes and clear. A number of caboceers from distant provinces arrived to-day, and we had nothing but drumming, and whistling, the whole day. The king sent us an invitation to see them, and we went in the afternoon. We found the king seated in an old easy chair covered with crimson damask. The caboceers at some distance in front, facing him, dressed in leopard skin robes, their heads well dusted, and also their cheeks, by rubbing their faces in the dust while making their prostrations. It is the court etiquette here to appear in a loose cloth, tied under one arm; part over the other shoulder, and hanging down to the feet in a graceful manner: but no tobes, no beads, no coral, or grandeur of any kind, must appear but on the king alone. The cane I made him a present of holds, on all occasions, a conspicuous place: when he walks, he carries it, and when he sits, it is stuck in the ground at some distance before him. He presented us with gooro nuts, and asked me to fire off some rockets to-night. The caboceers from the country were attended by their bowmen. They are required to wait upon, and first to prostrate themselves before, the chief eunuch, with dust on their heads. When any one speaks to the king, he must do it stretched at full length on the ground, and it must be said to him through the eunuch, who is also prostrated by his side. When equals meet, they kneel on one knee; women kneel on both knees, the elbows resting on the ground. Saturday, 11th.—More caboceers arrive to-day, attended by their wild-looking followers, armed with swords, bows, and arrows; they also, covered with dust and sweat, went through their prostrations before the fat eunuch; the attendants dancing in a circle, while occasionally one came out, and danced a movement in the minuet style; in doing which, he would frequently throw a somerset equally as expert as old Grimaldi himself in his best times. I sat for an hour and a half, during all which time the prostrations were continued without intermission, accompanied with the dancing and tumbling, without regard to the intense heat of the sun. I concluded that they were practising before the eunuch, in order to be perfect when they appeared before the king. They were dressed in leopard skin robes, hung round with tassels and chains. At last the prostrations were completed, and the eunuch sent for several jars of palm wine. The caboceers were admitted to drink theirs in the eunuch’s house, but the attendants drank their share under a tree. In the afternoon, the king sent for us to see him, but I was too unwell to go, and desired Mr. Houtson and Richard to attend him.