In countries where despotism exists in all its force, and is gratified
in all its caprices, either the intoxication of power has occasioned
sovereigns to assume the most solemn and the most fantastic titles; or
the royal duties and functions were considered of so high and extensive
a nature, that the people expressed their notion of the pure monarchical
state by the most energetic descriptions of oriental fancy.
The chiefs of the Natchez are regarded by their people as the children
of the sun, and they bear the name of their father.
The titles which some chiefs assume are not always honourable in
themselves; it is sufficient if the people respect them. The king of
Quiterva calls himself the _great lion_; and for this reason lions are
there so much respected, that they are not allowed to kill them, but at
certain royal huntings.
The king of Monomotapa is surrounded by musicians and poets, who adulate
him by such refined flatteries as _lord of the sun and moon_; _great
magician_; and _great thief!_--where probably thievery is merely a term
for dexterity.
The Asiatics have bestowed what to us appear as ridiculous titles of
honour on their _princes_. The king of Arracan assumes the following
ones: "Emperor of Arracan, possessor of the white elephant, and the two
ear-rings, and in virtue of this possession legitimate heir of Pegu and
Brama; lord of the twelve provinces of Bengal, and the twelve kings who
place their heads under his feet."
His majesty of Ava is called _God_: when he writes to a foreign
sovereign he calls himself the king of kings, whom all others should
obey, as he is the cause of the preservation of all animals; the
regulator of the seasons, the absolute master of the ebb and flow of the
sea, brother to the sun, and king of the four-and-twenty umbrellas!
These umbrellas are always carried before him as a mark of his dignity.
The titles of the kings of Achem are singular, though voluminous. The
most striking ones are sovereign of the universe, whose body is luminous
as the sun; whom God created to be as accomplished as the moon at her
plenitude; whose eye glitters like the northern star; a king as
spiritual as a ball is round; who when he rises shades all his people;
from under whose feet a sweet odour is wafted, &c. &c.
The Kandyan sovereign is called _Dewo_ (God). In a deed of gift he
proclaims his extraordinary attributes. "The protector of religion,
whose fame is infinite, and of surpassing excellence, exceeding the
moon, the unexpanded jessamine buds, the stars, &c.; whose feet are as
fragrant to the noses of other kings as flowers to bees; our most noble
patron and god by custom," &c.
After a long enumeration of the countries possessed by the king of
Persia, they give him some poetical distinctions: _the branch of
honour_; _the mirror of virtue_; and _the rose of delight_.