"Now," Says Rumanika, "I No Sooner Went There And Saw The Iron,
And Brought It Here As You See It.
What can such a sign mean?"
"Of course that you are the rightful king," said his flatterers.
"Then," said Rumanika, in exuberant spirits, "during Dagara's
time, as the king was sitting with many other men outside his
hut, a fearful storm of thunder and lightning arose, and a
thunderbolt struck the ground in the midst of them, which
dispersed all the men but Dagara, who calmly took up the
thunderbolt and places it in the palace. I, however, no sooner
came into possession, and Rogero began to contend with me, than
the thunderbolt vanished. How would you account for this?" The
flatterers said, "It is as clear as possible; God gave the
thunderbolt to Dagaro as a sign he was pleased with him and his
rule; but when he found two brothers contending, he withdrew it
to show their conduct was wicked."
5th. - Rumanika in the morning sent me a young male nzoe (water-
boc)[FN#13] which his canoe-men had caught in the high rushes at
the head of the lake, by the king's order, to please me; for I
had heard this peculiar animal described in such strange ways at
Kaze, both by Musa and the Arabs, I was desirous of having a look
at one. It proved to be closely allied to a water-boc found by
Livingstone on the Ngami Lake; but, instead of being striped, was
very faintly spotted, and so long were its toes, it could hardly
walk on the dry ground; whilst its coat, also well adapted to the
moist element it lived in, was long, and of such excellent
quality that the natives prize it for wearing almost more than
any other of the antelope tribe. The only food it would eat were
the tops of the tall papyrus rushes; but though it ate and drank
freely, and lay down very quietly, it always charged with
ferocity any person who went near it.
In the afternoon Rumanika invited both Grant and myself to
witness his New Moon Levee, a ceremony which takes place every
month with a view of ascertaining how many of his subjects are
loyal. On entering his palace enclosure, the first thing we saw
was a blaue boc's horn stuffed full of magic powder, with very
imposing effect, by K'yengo, and stuck in the ground, with its
mouth pointing in the direction of Rogero. In the second court,
we found thirty-five drums ranged on the ground, with as many
drummers standing behind them, and a knot of young princes and
officers of high dignity waiting to escort us into the third
enclosure, where, in his principal hut, we found Rumanika
squatting on the ground, half-concealed by the portal, but
showing his smiling face to welcome us in. His head was got up
with a tiara of beads, from the centre of which, directly over
the forehead, stood a plume of red feathers, and encircling the
lower face with a fine large white beard set in a stock or band
of beads.
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