Two men in brownish leather caps, and holding three-cornered halberts, stood inside the gate leading to the private apartments. Four men in caps of spotted deer-skin, holding spears with blades upturned from the base of the point, stood, one on each side of the steps east and west, and near to the platform of the hall. One man in a great officer's cap, and holding an axe, stood in the hall, (near the steps) at the east (end). One man in a great officer's cap, and holding an axe of a different pattern, stood in the hall, (near the steps) at the west end. One man in a great officer's cap, and holding a lance, stood at the front and east of the hall, close by the steps. One man in a great officer's cap, and holding a lance of a different pattern, stood in the corresponding place on the west. One man in a great officer's cap, and holding a pointed weapon, stood by the steps on the north side of the hall.
The king, in a linen cap and the variously figured skirt, ascended by the guests' steps, followed by the high ministers, (great) officers, and princes of states, in linen caps and dark-coloured skirts[1]. Arrived in the hall, they all took their (proper) places. The Grand-Guardian, the Grand-Historiographer, and the Minister of Religion were all in
- ↑ All was now ready for the grand ceremony, and the performers, in their appropriate mourning and sacrificial array, take their places in the hall. Kâo is here for the first time styled 'king;' but still he goes up by the guests' steps, not presuming to ascend by the others, while his father's corpse was in the hall.
ascended, and on the east were those used by the host himself. If one of the royal carriages was absent on this occasion, it must have been that used in war, as not being appropriate at such a time.
