MISSIONARY LADIES IN THE KING'S PALACE.
Paint to your fancy a village of curious Oriental
houses, with a high, thick wall, three
miles in circuit, surrounding it. In this village,
or miniature city, are the king's quarters. Here
are temple-grounds with their temples and idols
and all their rich adornings, whither people of
many generations have gone to worship at shrines
which their own hands have made. Here are
the dwellings of the king's wives and the residences
of the princesses, old and young, who
cannot be allowed to marry beneath their royal
rank. Each lady has a separate house and has
her retinue of servants—all women. There is
also a market, conducted entirely by women.
The census of the dwellers in this palace was
once taken, and it amounted to three thousand
females. This included the king's wives, princesses
with their servants, the market-women
and the female officers of the court.
In 1851 the priest-prince came to the throne. He was the son of a queen, and he looked upon his older brother (the son of an inferior wife,
