Harry hastened to assure him that he was more than pleased, he was
delighted.
Would the queen of his country be pleased if she were here? That was
his next question, and he laughed as he put it till his sides shook
again. The answer was, "Undoubtedly."
I do not intend to give a complete description of all the performances
of the day--they were far too numerous. Suffice it to say that there
was a grand procession of warriors, headed by the flower-bedecked
amazons; after the soldiers came the king's butchers or executioners;
and next a crew of naked natives, bearing a pig, a goat, and several
cocks and hens for the slaughter. The goat looked rather astonished and
kicked a little at times; the cocks looked boldly unconcerned; but the
pig was a lusty one, he was not content with kicking and biting, but he
screamed so loudly that the sound, or bleating one might call it, of the
chanters was hardly heard. All this, accompanied by the beating of
tom-toms and the occasional unearthly yells of the amazons, made up a
concert that it is far beyond my powers of description to give the
reader any correct notion of.
The animals were slain. The amazons danced around the hole into which
the creatures' blood had been poured, frequently dipping their fingers
therein and besmearing their faces, which certainly did not improve
their grim beauty.
Then the procession returned to the king's enclosure, and more wild
dancing was carried on, much to the delectation of his majesty.
Suddenly he wheeled round to the mat where Harry and Raggy were
squatted.
"Can you dance?" said the king. "Yes, you must dance."
When Raggy translated his majesty's words Harry could not keep from
laughing aloud.
The idea, he thought, of his leading one of those bloody-faced amazons
through a mazy dance, or of his dancing in her majesty's uniform to
please a savage king!
"No," he said, "he could not dance; but Raggy would."