This Was
The First Time The Gun Had Been Discharged Since He Received It,
And, Fearing To Fire It Himself, He Called One Of My Men To Do It
For Him.
5th. - At 9 a.m., the time for measuring the fall of rain for the
last twenty-four hours,
We found the rain-gauge and the bottle
had been removed, so we sent Kidgwiga to inform the king we
wished his magicians to come at once and institute a search for
it. Kidgwiga immediately returned with the necessary adept, an
old man, nearly blind, dressed in strips of old leather fastened
to the waist, and carrying in one hand a cow's horn primed with
magic powder, carefully covered on the mouth with leather, from
which dangled an iron bell. The old creature jingled the bell,
entered our hut, squatted on his hams, looked first at one, then
at the other - inquired what the missing things were like,
grunted, moved his skinny arm round his head, as if desirous of
catching air from all four sides of the hut, then dashed the
accumulated air on the head of his horn, smelt it to see if all
was going right, jingled the bell again close to his ear, and
grunted his satisfaction; the missing articles must be found.
To carry out the incantation more effectually, however, all my
men were sent for to sit in the open before the hut, when the old
doctor rose, shaking the horn and tinkling the bell close to his
ear. He then, confronting one of the men, dashed the horn forward
as if intending to strike him on the face, then smelt the head,
then dashed at another, and so on, till he became satisfied that
my men were not the thieves. He then walked into Grant's hut,
inspected that, and finally went to the place where the bottle
had been kept. There he walked about the grass with his arm up,
and jingling the bell to his ear, first on one side, then on the
other, till the track of a hyena gave him the clue, and in two or
three more steps he found it. A hyena had carried it into the
grass and dropped it. Bravo, for the infallible horn! and well
done the king for his honesty in sending it! So I gave the king
the bottle and gauge, which delighted him amazingly; and the old
doctor who begged for pombe, got a goat for his trouble. My men
now, recollecting the powder robbery at Uganda, said king Mtesa
would not send his horn when I asked for it, because he was the
culprit himself.
6th. - Kidgwiga told us to-day that king Kamrasi's sisters are not
allowed to wed; they live and die virgins in his palace. Their
only occupation in life consisted of drinking milk, of which each
one consumes the produce daily of from ten to twenty cows, and
hence they become so inordinately fat that they cannot walk.
Should they wish to see a relative, or go outside the hut for any
purpose, it requires eight men to lift any of them on a litter.
The brothers, too, are not allowed to go out of his reach. This
confinement of the palace family is considered a state necessity,
as a preventive to civil wars, in the same way as the
destruction of the Uganda princes, after a certain season, is
thought necessary for the preservation of peace there.
7th. - In the morning the Kamraviona called, on the king's behalf,
to inquire after my health, and also to make some important
communications. First he was to request a supply of bullets,
that the king might fire a salute when Bombay returned from Gani;
next, to ask for stimulative medicine, now that he had consumed
all I gave him, and gone through the preliminary course; further,
to request I would spread a charm over all his subjects, so that
their hearts might be inclined towards him, and they would come
without calling and bow down at his feet; finally, he wished me
to exchange my blood with him, that we might be brothers till
death. I sent the bullets, advised him to wait a day or two for
the medicine, and said there was only one charm by which he could
gain the influence he required over his subjects - this was,
knowledge and the power of the pen. Should he desire some of my
children (meaning missionaries) to come here and instruct his,
the thing would be done; but not in one year, nor even ten, for
it takes many years to educate children.
As to exchanging by blood with a black man's, it was a thing
quite beyond my comprehension; though Rumanika, I must confess,
had asked me to do the same thing. The way the English make
lasting friendships is done either by the expressions of their
hearts, or by the exchange of some trifles, as keepsakes; and
now, as I had given Kamrasi some specimens of English
manufacture, he might give me a horn, or anything else he chose,
which I could show to my friends, so as to keep him in
recollection all my life.
The Kamraviona, before leaving, said, for our information, that a
robbery had occurred in the palace last night; for this morning,
when Kamrasi went to inspect his Mzungu (the block-tin box),
which he had forgotten to lock, he found all his beads had been
stolen. After sniffing round among the various wives, he smelt
the biggest one to be the culprit, and turned the beads out of
her possession. Deputies came in the evening with a pot of pombe
and small screw of butter, to tell me some Gani people had just
arrived, bringing information that the vessel at Gani had left to
go down the river; but when intelligence reached the vessel of
the approach of my men they turned and came back again. Bombay
was well feasted on the road by Kamrasi's people, receiving eight
cows from one and two cows from another.
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