Ptiqnctte Abroad.

Otago Witness, Issue 2744, 17 October 1906, Page 73

Ptiqnctte Abroad.

A number of years ago it was perfectly permissible, and, in fact, a matter of strict etiquette, for a visitor who should obtain an audience with the Sultan of Turkey to bow and kiss the hand of that. Oriental potentate. Anarchists, however, took advantage of the privilege, and on one memorable occasion a treacherous emissary drove a dagger into the heart of his Sovereign, and from that time forth the privilege has been disallowed. When the youthful King of Spain was 12 years of age he ono day had the misfortune to slip and fall down a flight of the palace steps. The fall would very prabably have been attended with fatal results had it not been for a servant who extended a kindly hand and saved his young master by breaking the fall. But, by a stringent rule of Spanish etiquette, no servant may dare touch the sacred person of the King, and for this very "grave" offence the servant was at once dismissed from his position. By a remarkable law of royal etiquette, which has existed for a number of years at the Court of Siam, no person is permitted to sleep in an apartment situated above that occupied by the King. A deliberate breach of this rule* has on more than one occasion been punished by death. Recently, when the King of Siam paid a visit to Paris, a number of bedrooms were reserved directly above that in which the King was to have slept, for the dusky followers of the royal visitor. The blunder caused great consternation among the fearful courtiers, until the matter was explained to the management and duly rectified.