KHOON THOW APP, THE CHIEF OF THE FEMALE JUDGES.
Next morning, as if some invisible power were working to aid my plans,
I was summoned early to the palace. I carried my petition and a small
book entitled "Curiosities of Science" with me.
The king was very gracious, and so pleased with the book that I took
the opportunity of handing in my petition. He read it carefully, and
then gave it back to me, saying, "Inquiry shall be made by me into this
case."
On the day after I received the following little note from the king:--
LADY LEONOWENS:--I have liberty to do an inquiry for the matter
complained, to hear from the Princess P'hra Ong Brittry, the daughter
of the Chow Chom Manda Ung, who is now absent from hence. The princess
said that she knows nothing about the wife of Naikodah, but that
certain children were sent her from her grandfather maternal, that
they are offspring of his maid-servant, and that these children shall
be in her employment. So I ought to see the Chow Chom Manda Ung, and
inquire from herself.
S.P.P. MAHA MONGKUT, RX.
His Majesty was as good as his word, and when the Chow Chom Manda Ung
returned, he ordered the chief of the female judges of the palace, her
ladyship, Khoon Thow App, to investigate the matter.
Khoon Thow App was a tall, stout, dark woman, with soft eyes, but
rather a heavy face, her only beauty being in her hands and arms,
which were remarkably well formed. She was religious and scrupulously
just, had a serious and concentrated bearing. Everything she said or
did was studied, not for effect, but from discretion. A certain air of
preoccupation was natural to her. She knew everything that took place
in the harem, and concealed everything within her own breast. By dint
of attention and penetration she had attained to her high office, and
she retained it by virtue of her supreme but unassuming fitness for
the position. She was like a deaf person whose sight is quickened, and
like one blind whose sense of hearing is intensified. That hideous
symbolical Sphinx, with a sword drawn through her mouth, babbled all
her secrets and sorrows in her ear. She inspired confidence, and she
never decided a case in private. She lived alone, in a small house at
the end of the street, with only four faithful female slaves. The rest
she had freed. It was before this woman that, by order of the king, I
brought my complaint in behalf of L'ore; she raised her eyes from her
book, or rather roll, and said, "Ah! it is you, mam. I wish to speak to
you."
"And for my part," said I, with a boldness at which I was myself
astonished, "I have something to say to your ladyship."
"O, I know that you have a communication to make, which has already
been laid before his Majesty. Your petition is granted."
"How!" said I, "is L'ore really free to leave the palace?"
"O no; but his Majesty's letter is of such a character that we have the
power to proceed in this matter against the Chow Chom Manda Ung. Though
we are said to have the right to compel any woman in the palace to come
before us, these great ladies will not appear personally, but send all
manner of frivolous excuses, unless summoned by a royal mandate such as
this."
She then turned to one of the female sheriffs, and despatched her for
the Chow Chom Manda Ung, P'hra Ong Brittry, and the slave-woman L'ore.
After a delay of nearly two hours, Chow Chom Manda Ung and her
daughter, the Princess P'hra Ong Brittry, made their appearance,
accompanied by an immense retinue of female slaves, bearing a host
of luxurious appendages for their royal mistresses' comfort during
the trial, with the sheriff bending low, and following this grand
procession at a respectful distance.
The great ladies took their places on the velvet cushions placed for
them by their slaves, with an air of authority and rebellion combined,
as if to say, "Who is there here to constrain us?"
The chief judge adjusted her spectacles, and as she looked fixedly at
the great ladies she asked, "Where is the slave-woman L'ore?"
The old dowager cast a malicious glance at the judge; but there was
still the same silence, the same air of defiance of all authority.
All round the open sala, or hall, was collected a ragged rabble of
slave women and children, crouching in all sorts of attitudes and
all sorts of costumes, but with eyes fixed on the chief judge in
startled astonishment and wonder at her calm, unmovable countenance.
Superciliousness and apparent contempt prevailed everywhere, yet in the
midst of all the consciousness of an austere and august presence was
evident; for not one of those slave-women, lowly, untaught, and half
clad as they were, but felt that in the heart of that dark, stern woman
before them there was as great a respect for the rights of the meanest
among them as for those of the queen dowager herself.
The chief judge then read aloud in a clear voice the letter she had
received from the king, and, when it was finished, the dowager and
her daughter saluted the letter by prostrating themselves three times
before it.
Then the judge inquired if the august ladies had aught to say why the
slave-woman L'ore should not have been emancipated when she offered to
pay the full price of her freedom.
The attention of all was excited to the highest degree; every eye
concentrated itself on the queen dowager.
She spoke with difficulty, and answered with some embarrassment, but
from head to foot her whole person defied the judge.
"And what if every slave in my service should bring me the price of her
freedom?"
All eyes turned again to the judge, seated so calmly there on her
little strip of matting; every ear was strained to catch her reply.
"Then, lady, thou wouldst be bound to free every one of them."
"And serve myself?"
"Even so, my august mistress," said the judge, bowing low.
The dowager turned very pale and trembled slightly as the judge
declared that L'ore was no longer the slave of the Chow Chom Manda Ung,
but the property of the Crue Yai (royal teacher).
"Let her purchase-money be paid down," said the dowager, angrily, "and
she is freed forever from my service."
The judge then turned to me, and said, "You are now the mistress of
L'ore. I will have the papers made out. Bring hither the money, forty
ticals, and all shall be settled."
I thanked the judge, bowed to the great ladies, who simply ignored
my existence, and returned perfectly happy for once in my life to my
home in Bangkok. Next day, after school, I presented myself at the
court-house. Only three of the female judges were present, with some
of the p'ha khooms (sheriffs). Khoon Thow App handed me the dekah, or
free paper, and bade one of the p'ha khooms go with me to see the money
paid and L'ore liberated.
Never did my feet move so swiftly as when I threaded once more the
narrow alley, and my heart beat quickly as I pushed open the ponderous
brass door.
There was L'ore, chained as before. In the piazza sat the Princess
P'hra Ong Brittry and her mother, surrounded by their sympathizing
women.
The p'ha khoom was so timid and hesitating, that I advanced and laid
the money before the great ladies.
The queen dowager dashed the money away and sent it rolling hither and
thither on the pavement, but gave orders at the same time to release
L'ore and let her go.
This was done by a female blacksmith, a dark, heavy, ponderous-looking
woman, who filed the rivet asunder.
In the mean time a crowd had collected in this solitary place, chiefly
ladies of the harem, with some few slaves.
So L'ore was free at last; but what was my amazement to find that
she refused to move; she persistently folded her hands and remained
prostrate before her royal persecutors as if rooted to the spot. I was
troubled. I turned to consult the p'ha khoom, but she did not dare
to advise me, when one of the ladies--a mother, with a babe in her
arms--whispered in my ear, "They have taken away the child."
Alas! I had forgotten the child.
The faces of the crowd were marked with sympathy and sadness; they
exchanged glances, and the same woman whispered to me, "Go back, go
back, and demand to buy the child." I turned away sorrowfully, hastened
to Khoon Thow App, and stated my case. She opened a box, drew out a
dark roll, and set out with me.
The scene was just as I had left it. There sat the august ladies,
holding small jewelled hand-mirrors, and creaming their lips with the
most sublime air of indifference. L'ore still lay prostrate before
them, her face hidden on the pavement. The crowd of women pressed
anxiously in, and all eyes were strained towards the judge. She bowed
before the ladies, opened the dark roll, and read the law: "If any
woman have children during her bondage, they shall be slaves also, and
she is bound to pay for their freedom as well as her own. The price of
an infant in arms is one tical, and for every year of his or her life
shall be paid one tical." This declaration in terms so precise appeared
to produce a strong impression on the crowd, and none whatever on the
royal ladies. Ever so many betel-boxes were opened, and the price of
the child pressed upon me.
I took four ticals and laid them down before the ladies. The judge,
seeing that nothing was done to bring the child to the prostrate
mother, despatched one of the p'ha khooms for the boy. In half an
hour he was in his mother's arms. She did not start with surprise or
joy, but turned up to heaven a face that was joy itself. Both mother
and child bowed before the great ladies. Then L'ore made strenuous
efforts to stand up and walk, and, failing, began to laugh at her
own awkwardness, as she limped and hobbled along, borne away by the
exulting crowd, headed by the judge. Even this did not diminish her
happiness. With her face pressed close to her boy's, she continued to
talk to herself and to him, "How happy we shall be! We, too, have a
little garden in thy father's house. My Thook will play in the garden;
he will chase the butterflies in the grass, and I will watch him all
the day long," etc.
The keepers of the gates handed flowers to the boy, saying, "P'hoodh
thŏ dee chai nak nah, dee chai nak nah" (pitiful Buddha! we are very
glad at heart, very, very glad).
The news had spread, and, before we reached the river, hosts of Malays,
Mohammedans, and Siamese, with some few Chinese, had loosened their
cumberbunds (scarfs) and converted them into flags.
Thus, with the many-colored flags flying, the men, women, and children
running and shouting along the banks of the Mèinam, spectators crowding
into the fronts of their floating houses, L'ore and her boy sailed down
the river and reached their home.
The next day her husband, Naikodah Ibrahim, refunded the money paid
for his wife and child, whose name was changed from Thook (Sorrow) to
Urbanâ (the Free).
[Illustration: GUARD OF AMAZONS.]