JONG THINKALOT had not ruled over his new kingdom for more than a
couple of days before my notions about kings and the kind of lives they
led changed very considerably. I had thought that all that kings had to
do was to sit on a throne and have people bow down before them several
times a day. I now saw that a king can be the hardest-working man in
the world—if he attends properly to his business.
From the moment that he got up, early in the morning, till the time he
went to bed, late at night—seven days in the week—John Dolittle was
busy, busy, busy. First of all there was the new town to be built. The
village of Popsipetel had disappeared: the City of New Popsipetel must
be made. With great care a place was chosen for it—and a very beautiful
position it was, at the mouth of a large river. The shores of the
island at this point formed a lovely wide bay where canoes—and ships
too, if they should ever come—could lie peacefully at anchor without
danger from storms.
In building this town the Doctor gave the Indians a lot of new
ideas. He showed them what town-sewers were, and how garbage should
be collected each day and burnt. High up in the hills he made a large
lake by damming a stream. This was the water-supply for the town. None
of these things had the Indians ever seen; and many of the sicknesses
which they had suffered from before were now entirely prevented by
proper drainage and pure drinking-water.
Peoples who don’t use fire do not of course have metals either; because
without fire it is almost impossible to shape iron and steel. One of
the first things that John Dolittle did was to search the mountains
till he found iron and copper mines. Then he set to work to teach the
Indians how these metals could be melted and made into knives and plows
and water-pipes and all manner of things.
In his kingdom the Doctor tried his hardest to do away with most of the
old-fashioned pomp and grandeur of a royal court. As he said to Bumpo
and me, if he must be a king he meant to be a thoroughly democratic
one, that is a king who is chummy and friendly with his subjects and
doesn’t put on airs. And when he drew up the plans for the City of New
Popsipetel he had no palace shown of any kind. A little cottage in a
back street was all that he had provided for himself.
But this the Indians would not permit on any account. They had been
used to having their kings rule in a truly grand and kingly manner;
and they insisted that he have built for himself the most magnificent
palace ever seen. In all else they let him have his own way absolutely;
but they wouldn’t allow him to wriggle out of any of the ceremony or
show that goes with being a king. A thousand servants he had to keep in
his palace, night and day, to wait on him. The Royal Canoe had to be
kept up—a gorgeous, polished mahogany boat, seventy feet long, inlaid
with mother-o’-pearl and paddled by the hundred strongest men in the
island. The palace-gardens covered a square mile and employed a hundred
and sixty gardeners.
Even in his dress the poor man was compelled always to be grand and
elegant and uncomfortable. The beloved and battered high hat was put
away in a closet and only looked at secretly. State robes had to be
worn on all occasions. And when the Doctor did once in a while manage
to sneak off for a short, natural-history expedition he never dared to
wear his old clothes, but had to chase his butterflies with a crown
upon his head and a scarlet cloak flying behind him in the wind.
There was no end to the kinds of duties the Doctor had to perform and
the questions he had to decide upon—everything, from settling disputes
about lands and boundaries, to making peace between husband and wife
who had been throwing shoes at one another. In the east wing of the
Royal Palace was the Hall of Justice. And here King Jong sat every
morning from nine to eleven passing judgment on all cases that were
brought before him.
[Illustration: “Had to chase his butterflies with a crown upon his
head”]
Then in the afternoon he taught school. The sort of things he taught
were not always those you find in ordinary schools. Grown-ups as well
as children came to learn. You see, these Indians were ignorant of many
of the things that quite small white children know—though it is also
true that they knew a lot that white grown-ups never dreamed of.
Bumpo and I helped with the teaching as far as we could—simple
arithmetic, and easy things like that. But the classes in astronomy,
farming science, the proper care of babies, with a host of other
subjects, the Doctor had to teach himself. The Indians were
tremendously keen about the schooling and they came in droves and
crowds; so that even with the open-air classes (a school-house was
impossible of course) the Doctor had to take them in relays and batches
of five or six thousand at a time and used a big megaphone or trumpet
to make himself heard.
The rest of his day was more than filled with road-making, building
water-mills, attending the sick and a million other things.
In spite of his being so unwilling to become a king, John Dolittle
made a very good one—once he got started. He may not have been as
dignified as many kings in history who were always running off to war
and getting themselves into romantic situations; but since I have grown
up and seen something of foreign lands and governments I have often
thought that Popsipetel under the reign of Jong Thinkalot was perhaps
the best ruled state in the history of the world.
The Doctor’s birthday came round after we had been on the island
six months and a half. The people made a great public holiday of it
and there was much feasting, dancing, fireworks, speechmaking and
jollification.
Towards the close of the day the chief men of the two tribes formed a
procession and passed through the streets of the town, carrying a very
gorgeously painted tablet of ebony wood, ten feet high. This was a
picture-history, such as they preserved for each of the ancient kings
of Popsipetel to record their deeds.
With great and solemn ceremony it was set up over the door of the new
palace: and everybody then clustered round to look at it. It had six
pictures on it commemorating the six great events in the life of King
Jong and beneath were written the verses that explained them. They were
composed by the Court Poet; and this is a translation:
I
(_His Landing on The Island_)
Heaven-sent,
In his dolphin-drawn canoe
From worlds unknown
He landed on our shores.
The very palms
Bowed down their heads
In welcome to the coming King.