You Have Quite Forgotten Us In Your
Love Of Home." Of Course Meri's Misdemeanour Had To Be Explained,
When She
Said, "As that is the case, I will give you another; but
you must take Meri out of the country,
Else she will bring
trouble on us; for, you know, I never gave girls who lived in the
palace to any one in my life before, because they would tell
domestic affairs not proper for common people to know." I then
said my reason for not seeing her before was, that the four times
I had sent messengers to make an appointment for the following
day, they had been repulsed from her doors. This she would not
believe, but called me a story-teller in very coarse language,
until the men who had been sent were pointed out to her, and they
corroborated me.
The Wichwezi queen met her majesty with her head held very high,
and instead of permitting me to sit on my box of grass, threw out
a bundle of grass for that purpose. All conversation was kept
between the two queens; but her Wichwezi majesty had a platter of
clay-stone brought, which she ate with great relish, making a
noise of satisfaction like a happy guinea-pig. She threw me a
bit, which to the surprise of everybody, I caught and threw it
into my mouth, thinking it was some confection; but the harsh
taste soon made me spit it out again, to the amusement of the
company. On returning home I found the king had requested me to
call on him as soon as possible with the medicine-chest.
8th. - Without a morsel to eat for dinner last night, or anything
this morning, we proceeded early to the palace, in great
expectation that the medicines in request would bring us
something; but after waiting all day till 4 p.m., as the king did
not appear, leaving Bombay behind, I walked away to shoot a
guinea-fowl within earshot of the palace. The scheme was
successful, for the report of the gun which killed the bird
reached the king's ear, and induced him to say that if Bana was
present he would be glad to see him. This gave Bombay an
opportunity of telling all the facts of the case; which were no
sooner heard than the king gave his starving guests a number of
plantains, and vanished at once, taking my page Lugoi with him,
to instruct him in Kisuahili (Zanzibar language).
9th. - As the fruit of last night's scheme, the king sent us four
goats and two cows. In great good-humour I now called on him,
and found him walking about the palace environs with a carbine,
looking eagerly for sport, whilst his pages dragged about five
half-dead vultures tied in a bundle by their legs to a string.
"These birds," said he, tossing his head proudly, "were all shot
flying, with iron slugs, as the boys will tell you. I like the
carbine very well, but you must give me a double smooth gun."
This I promised to give when Grant arrived, for his good-nature
in sending so many officers to fetch him.
We next tried for guinea-fowl, as I tell him they are the game
the English delight in; but the day was far spent, and none could
be found. A boy then in attendance was pointed out, as having
seen Grant in Uddu ten days ago. If the statement were true, he
must have crossed the Katonga. But though told with great
apparent circumspection, I did not credit it, because my men sent
on the 15th ultimo for a letter to ascertain his whereabouts had
not returned, and they certainly would have done so had he been
so near. To make sure, the king then proposed sending the boy
again with some of my men; but this I objected to as useless,
considering the boy had spoken falsely. Hearing this, the king
looked at the boy and then at the women in turn, to ascertain
what they thought of my opinion, whereupon the boy cried. Late
in the evening the sly little girl Kahala changed her cloth
wrapper for a mbugu, and slipped quietly away. I did not suspect
her intention, because of late she had appeared much more than
ordinary happy, behaving to me in every respect like a dutiful
child to a parent. A search was made, and guns fired, in the
hopes of frightening her back again, but without effect.
10th. - I had promised that this morning I would teach the king
the art of guinea-fowl shooting, and when I reached the palace at
6 a.m., I found him already on the ground. He listened to the
tale of the missing girl, and sent orders for her apprehension at
once; then proceeding with the gun, fired eight shots
successively at guinea-birds sitting on trees, but missed them
all. After this, as the birds were scared away, and both iron
shot and bullets were expended, he took us to his dressing-hut,
went inside himself, attended by full-grown naked women, and
ordered a breakfast of pork, beef, fish, and plantains to be
served me outside on the left of the entrance; whilst a large
batch of his women sat on the right side, silently coquetting,
and amusing themselves by mimicking the white man eating. Poor
little Lugoi joined in the repast, and said he longed to return
to my hut, for he was half starved here, and no one took any
notice of him; but he was destined to be a royal page, for the
king would not part with him. A cold fit then seized me, and as
I asked for leave to go, the king gave orders for one of his
wives to be flogged. The reason for this act of brutality I did
not discover; but the moment the order was issued, the victim
begged the pages to do it quickly, that the king's wrath might be
appeased; and in an instant I saw a dozen boys tear their cord-
turbans from their heads pull her roughly into the middle of the
court, and belabour her with sticks, whilst she lay floundering
about, screeching to me for protection.
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