Lieutenant
Speke Here Occupied A Fort Or Stone House Belong To His Abban; Finding The
People Very Suspicious, He Did Not Enter Las Kuray For Prudential Motives.
There The Sultan Has No Habitation; When He Visited The Place He Lodged In
The House Of A Nacoda Or Ship-Captain.
Lieutenant Speke was delayed at Kurayat by the pretext of want of cattle;
in reality to be plundered.
The Sultan, who inhabits the Jungle, did not
make his appearance till repeatedly summoned. About the tenth day the old
man arrived on foot, attended by a dozen followers; he was carefully
placed in the centre of a double line bristling with spears, and marched
past to his own fort. Lieutenant Speke posted his servants with orders to
fire a salute of small firearms. The consequence was that the evening was
spent in prayers.
During Lieutenant Speke's first visit to the Sultan, who received him
squatting on the ground outside the house in which he lodged, with his
guards about him, the dignitary showed great trepidation, but returned
salams with politeness.< He is described as a fine-looking man, between
forty-eight and fifty years of age; he was dressed in an old and dirty
Tobe, had no turban, and appeared unarmed. He had consulted the claims of
"dignity" by keeping the traveller waiting ten days whilst he journeyed
twenty miles. Before showing himself he had privily held a Durbar at Las
Kuray; it was attended by the Agils of the tribe, by Mohammed Samattar
(Lieutenant Speke's Abban), and the people generally.
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