Chapter 18 Taboo Acts: Taboo to leave the palace

The scope of the above-mentioned taboo was slightly extended, and the king was sometimes imprisoned and not allowed to leave the palace. If he left the palace, his subjects were not allowed to see him outside the palace.The king of Benin was worshiped as a god by his subjects and was not allowed to leave the palace.Once the king of Luango is crowned, he must live in seclusion in the palace and must not leave.The king of Onisha [in present-day Niger], "unless he sacrificed human beings to the gods to obtain the favor of the gods, he would never go out of the palace to the city. For this reason, he never went out of the range of his own residential area. ’” We have indeed heard cases where the king was not allowed to leave the palace without authorization, and whoever failed was punished with death, or with one or more of his slaves executed instead.Since the wealth of a country was determined by the number of slaves it owned, the king had to take special care not to violate this law.But whenever the annual Yam people's festival is celebrated, the king is allowed to come out, and according to the custom, the king must come out and dance in front of all the subjects outside the high earthen wall of the palace.When dancing, he must also carry a heavy burden, usually a bag of sand, to prove that he is still capable of shouldering important responsibilities of state affairs.If he was incompetent, he was immediately deposed, or even stoned to death.The king of Ethiopia is worshiped as a god by his subjects, and most of them are locked in the palace and cannot go out.Pontus [An ancient kingdom in the northeast of Asia Minor, a province of the Roman Empire from the 4th century BC to 66 AD. ] on the mountainous coast, where the savage and warlike Mocini (or Mosinosi) peoples once dwelt.The famous evacuation of 10,000 people from Asia to Europe passed through this rugged region.Those savages imprisoned their king in a tall building, and once he was elected king, he was never allowed to come down the stairs.He lives here to enforce the law for the people; however, if he offends the people, the people will not give him food all day long, or even starve him to death.Sabah or Sheba, the ancient Arabian spice country [the name of the ancient country, in southern Arabia, which is now Yemen, is famous for its spice and gemstone business. ] Kings were forbidden to leave the palace, and if they did, the crowd would throw stones at them and kill them.But there is a window on the top of the palace that is chained to the ground outside. If anyone feels wronged, he can pull the chain, and the king will call him in for an audience and judge him.