KING 4 FEET 9 INCHES TALL.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 351, 8 April 1911, Page 7

KING 4 FEET 9 INCHES TALL.

When travelling through the Shan States I had the honour of being presented to the smallest king in the world, the Sawhwa, or Myo'sa of Chentung. He stood, as nearly as I could judge, about 4 feet 9 inches in his curly Burmese slippers, and ■aas the quintessence of regal courtesy. His "palace" was a thatched hut on stilts, close to the Sahveen River ; he had several wives, who manifested great curiosity when they saw their lord in conversation with a white man, and his retinue consisted of some four-and-twenty men armed with the quaintest collection of old guns that ever came out of a curiosity shop. The little brown king held out £ small, plump hand for me to shake. It was as soft as a woman's. He bade me welcome with a smile the most genial I ever saw, and begged me to accept a cocoan-at. I knew that it was Court etiquette to offer a gift in return, and I was embarrassed to think that, travelling "light" as I was, 1 had nothing worthy of his acceptance. I suddenly bethought me of a corkscrew knife bearing the name of a well-1-nown brand of bottled beer, which had been given me as an advertisement in Calcutta a few months earlier.

This T presented to him with due ceremony, and he accepted it with unfeigned delight. All his army pressed round as I opened the blades, the corkscrew, and the hoofpick, and the headman beat a gong vigorously at a signal from the king, apparently in token of the royal approval.—"Standard."