We modern Westerners have difficulty relating to the idea of a king. So I was struck when reading Laurence Bergreen’s Over the Edge of the World, a book about the travels of Ferdinand Magellan and his crew, which lends clarity to the concept of “king” in so many cultures. When they arrived in a Pacific island kingdom, they wanted an audience with the king. But they were told that no one could speak directly to him. If they wanted to say something, they had to tell a servant. And that servant would then have the honor of giving the message to another servant, one with a higher rank. The
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