After Presenting Rumanika With An India-Rubber Band - Which, As
Usual, Amused Him Immensely - For The Honour He Had Done Me In
Showing Me His Wives, A Party Of Waziwa, Who Had Brought Some
Ivory From Kidi, Came To Pay Their Respects To Him.
On being
questioned by me, they said that they once saw some men like my
Wanguana there; they had come from the north to trade, but,
though they carried firearms, they were all killed by the people
of Kidi.
This was famous; it corroborated what I knew, but could
not convince others of, - that traders could find their way up to
Kidi by the Nile. It in a manner explained also how it was that
Kamrasi, some years before, had obtained some pink beads, of a
variety the Zanzibar merchants had never thought of bringing into
the country. Bombay was now quite convinced, and we all became
transported with joy, until Rumanika, reflecting on the sad state
of Grant's leg, turned that joy into grief by saying that the
rules of Uganda are so strict, that no one who is sick could
enter the country. "To show," he said, "how absurd they are,
your donkey would not be permitted because he has no trousers;
and you even will have to put on a gown, as your unmentionables
will be considered indecorous." I now asked Rumanika if he would
assist me in replenishing my fast-ebbing store of beads, by
selling tusks to the Arabs at Kufro, when for every 35lb. weight
I would give him 50 dollars by orders on Zanzibar, and would
insure him from being cheated, by sending a letter of advice to
our Consul residing there. At first he demurred, on the high-
toned principle that he could not have any commercial dealings
with myself; but, at the instigation of Bombay and Baraka, who
viewed it in its true character, as tending merely to assist my
journey in the best manner he could, without any sacrifice to
dignity, he eventually yielded, and, to prove his earnestness,
sent me a large tusk, with a notice that his ivory was not kept
in the palace, but with his officers, and as soon as they could
collect it, so soon I should get it.
Rumanika, on hearing that it was our custom to celebrate the
birth of our Saviour with a good feast of beef, sent us an ox. I
immediately paid him a visit to offer the compliments of the
season, and at the same time regretted, much to his amusement,
that he, as one of the old stock of Abyssinians, who are the
oldest Christians on record, should have forgotten this rite; but
I hoped the time would come when, by making it known that his
tribe had lapsed into a state of heathenism, white teachers would
be induced to set it all to rights again. At this time some
Wahaiya traders (who had been invited at my request by Rumanika)
arrived. Like the Waziwa, they had traded with Kidi, and they
not only confirmed what the Waziwa had said, but added that, when
trading in those distant parts, they heard of Wanguana coming in
vessels to trade to the north of Unyoro; but the natives there
were so savage, they only fought with these foreign traders.
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