yield seventy per cent. more than the average. I said that the fame
of the King had reached to the four corners of the earth, and that
the nations gnashed their teeth when they heard daily of the glories
of his realm and the wisdom of his moon-like Prime Minister and
lotus-like Director-General of Public Education.

Then we sat down on clean white cushions, and I was at the King's
right hand. Three minutes later he was telling me that the state of
the maize crop was something disgraceful, and that the Railway
companies would not pay him enough for his timber. The talk shifted
to and fro with the bottles, and we discussed very many stately
things, and the King became confidential on the subject of Government
generally. Most of all he dwelt on the shortcomings of one of his
subjects, who, from all I could gather, had been paralysing the
executive.

'In the old days,' said the King, 'I could have ordered the Elephant
yonder to trample him to death. Now I must e'en send him seventy
miles across the hills to be tried, and his keep would be upon the
State. The Elephant eats everything.'

'What be the man's crimes, Rajah Sahib?' said I.

'Firstly, he is an outlander and no man of mine own people. Secondly,
since of my favour I gave him land upon his first coming, he refuses
to pay revenue. Am I not the lord of the earth, above and below,
entitled by right and custom to one-eighth of the crop? Yet this
devil, establishing himself, refuses to pay a single tax; and he
brings a poisonous spawn of babes.'