Long Arguments Ensued, And I At Length
Turned The Tables By Asking Who Was The Greatest - Myself Or My
Children; When He Said, "As I See You Are The Greatest, I Will Do
As You Wish; And After Fetching The Cows From Kisuere, We Will
March To-Morrow At Sunrise."
The sun rose, but N'yamgundu did not appear.
I was greatly
annoyed lest Maula should come and try to drive him away. I
waited, restraining my impatience until noon, when, as I could
stand it no longer, I ordered Bombay to strike my tent, and
commence the march. A scene followed, which brought out my
commander-in-chief's temper in a rather surprising shape. "How
can we go in?" said Bombay. "Strike the tent," said I. "Who will
guide us?" said Bombay. "Strike the tent," I said again. "But
Rumanika's men have all gone away, and there is no one to show us
the way." "Never mind; obey my orders, and strike the tent."
Then, as Bombay would not do it, I commenced myself, assisted by
some of my other men, and pulled it down over his head, all the
women who were assembled under it, and all the property. On
this, Bombay flew into a passion, abusing the men who were
helping me, as there were fires and powder-boxes under the tent.
I of course had to fly into a passion and abuse Bombay. He, in a
still greater rage, said he would pitch into the men, for the
whole place would be blown up. "That is no reason why you should
abuse my men," I said, "who are better than you by obeying my
orders. If I choose to blow up my property, that is my look-out;
and if you don't do your duty, I will blow you up also." Foaming
and roaring with rage, Bombay said he would not stand being thus
insulted. I then gave him a dig on the head with my fist. He
squared up, and pouted like an enraged chameleon, looking
savagely at me. I gave him another dig, which sent him
staggering. He squared again: I gave him another; till at last,
as the claret was flowing, he sulked off, and said he would not
serve me any more. I then gave Nasib orders to take Bombay's
post, and commence the march; but the good old man made Bombay
give in, and off we went, amidst crowds of Waganda, who had
collected to witness with comedy, and were all digging at one
another's heads, showing off in pantomime the strange ways of the
white man. N'yamgundu then jointed us, and begged us to halt
only one more day, as some of his women were still at Kisuere;
but Bombay, showing his nozzle rather flatter than usual, said,
"No; I got this on account of your lies. I won't tell Bana any
more of your excuses for stopping; you may tell him yourself if
you like." N'yamgundu, however, did not think this advisable,
and so we went on as we were doing.
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