All looked forward to this position as the highest object of human ambition, and the friends and relatives of those here rejoiced in their honor.

Their powers were not executive, but deliberative.

To the Meleks and Athons was left the exercise of authority, but their acts were always in subordination to the will of the paupers.
"I have everything that heart can wish," said the Chief Pauper to me once.

"Look at me, Atam-or, and see me as I stand here: I have poverty, squalor, cold, perpetual darkness, the privilege of killing others, the near prospect of death, and the certainty of the Mista Kosek--all these I have, and yet, Atam-or, after all, I am not happy." To this strange speech I had nothing to say.
"Yes," continued the Chief Pauper, in a pensive tone, "for twenty seasons I have reigned as chief of the Kosekin in this place.

My cavern is the coldest, squalidest, and darkest in the land.