The 36-year-old king picks a new bride each year at the Reed Dance in a royal ritual that is defended by traditionalists as a time-honored piece of the nation's cultural fabric.

But Mswati, sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch, who has 11 wives and a fiancee, has drawn criticism for his lavish lifestyle in the small southern African kingdom fighting poverty and drought and ravaged by HIV/AIDS.

"My mother tries to support me after my father died of AIDS, but we are fed by the WFP (World Food Program). I want to live in a palace. The rain comes through the roof of our mud hut," said Amy Simelane, 15.

She was one of more than 20,000 young women and girls, which palace sources said was a record, who danced in the festivities on Monday.

HIV/AIDS, estimated to infect as much as a third of Swaziland's one million people, grinding poverty and a high birth rate conspire to swell the number of reed dancers, whose ages ranged from five to 19.

King Mswati, clad in his traditional leopard loin-skin, watched the proceedings from the royal box, smiling broadly as his aides videotaped the girls for future playback.

"I want to drive around in a Mercedes car. I don't care if I have to share the king with 20 other women," said Thab'sile Dlamini, 13.