A special Superstition attaches itself to this head-ornament. That worn by the Ruler is called a _Crown_. When he places it on in public, the trumpets give a mighty sound, all the people bow in humble homage, and Nature is supposed to arrest the wheels of her majestic course to join in the rapturous shouts of delight! The act is rooted in the Superstition, and one of its most cherished things. The highest ambition of a subject is to be permitted to take _Rank_ and wear this _bauble_. There is no mean service to the Ruler, no intrigue, no sacrifice which may not be done or suffered to get this privilege--the right to shine in this coronet. And such an ambition is so honourable, that success condones every contemptible thing by which it is secured. Men are blinded by the glare, and overlook the mean being below: in his Coronet he is unimpeached and unimpeachable! Nor is this ambition confined to the Lords temporal; the High-Caste Bonzes will not be remiss in those _duties_ to the Sovereign and to his family, in those to "Society" and to the exalted Lords, upon whom they have to attend on all occasions of baptising and marrying and feasting, to give the _blessings_ [fihu-lsi] of the gods of the Superstition--in nothing remiss which shall help them to secure the peculiar _head-gear_ given to those of their order whom the Sovereign raises to the lordly rank called _Bishops_. It is called a _mitre_. Ages ago, in the obscure days of the Superstition, poor and miserable, the chief Bonzes were distinguished by a head-covering like two bits of board, united or _mitred_ together, typical of the two-fold nature of their office. Thus arose the Mitre, now a resplendent and costly bauble, more lofty than the coronets, and showing the superiority of spiritual (priestly) dignity! In these coveted distinctions, the Sovereign finds the source of nearly all the power really enjoyed; and by an artful use and distribution of coronets and mitres, often covertly manages the machinery of government to his own wishes. An unscrupulous and able man may make himself respected! I forgot to say that another jewelled symbol of priestcraft is bestowed with the mitre, so comical that one might suspect it originated in the love of coarse humour common to the Barbarians--but its true origin was in the same early and poor days of the Superstition, when the highest Bonze was only a "Keeper of the Sheep;" that is, his duty was to keep the poor devotees together and save them from the idolatrous _pagans_. The Christ was said to have called his despised followers "Sheep without a shepherd," and to have requested the chief of his followers "to feed his sheep." Thus it came about that these chief men took a staff, crooked at one end (similar to that used by a veritable shepherd), as typical of their duty.