Agreeably With This, The Next Day I Went Out
With His Sons, Numerously Attended; But Although We Beat The
Covers All Day, The Rain Was So Frequent That The Pigs Would Not
Bolt.
14th. - After a long and amusing conversation with Rumanika in the
morning, I called on one of his sisters-in-law, married to an
elder brother who was born before Dagara ascended the throne.
She was another of those wonders of obesity, unable to stand
excepting on all fours. I was desirous to obtain a good view of
her, and actually to measure her, and induced her to give me
facilities for doing so, by offering in return to show her a bit
of my naked legs and arms. The bait took as I wished it, and
after getting her to sidle and wriggle into the middle of the
hut, I did as I promised, and then took her dimensions as noted
below.[FN#14] All of these are exact except the height, and I
believe I could have obtained this more accurately if I could
have her laid on the floor. Not knowing what difficulties I
should have to contend with in such a piece of engineering, I
tried to get her height by raising her up. This, after infinite
exertions on the part of us both, was accomplished, when she sank
down again, fainting, for her blood had rushed to her head.
Meanwhile, the daughter, a lass of sixteen, sat stark-naked
before us, sucking at a milk-pot, on which the father kept her at
work by holding a rod in his hand, for as fattening is the first
duty of fashionable female life, it must be duly enforced by the
rod if necessary. I got up a bit of flirtation with missy, and
induced her to rise and shake hands with me. Her features were
lovely, but her body was as round as a ball.
In the evening we had another row with my head men - Baraka having
accused Bombay of trying to kill him with magic. Bombay, who was
so incessantly bullied by Baraka's officious attempts to form
party cliques opposed to the interests of the journey, and get
him turned out of the camp, indiscreetly went to one of K'yengo's
men, and asked him if he knew of any medicine that would affect
the hearts of the Wanguana so as to incline them towards him; and
on the sub-doctor saying Yes, Bombay gave him some beads, and
bought the medicine required, which, put into a pot of pombe, was
placed by Baraka's side. Baraka in the meanwhile got wind of the
matter through K'yengo, who, misunderstanding the true facts of
the case, said it was a charm to deprive Baraka of his life. A
court of inquiry having been convened, with all the parties
concerned in attendance, K'yengo's mistake was discovered, and
Bombay was lectured for his folly, as he had a thousand times
before abjured his belief in such magical follies; moreover, to
punish him for the future, I took Baraka, whenever I could, with
me to visit the king, which, little as it may appear to others,
was of the greatest consequence to the hostile parties.
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