I Lost No
Time In Moving All My Property, Turning Out The Original
Occupants - In Selecting The Best Hut For Myself, Giving The Rest
To My Three Officers - And Ordering My Men To Build Barracks For
Themselves, In Street Form, From My Hut To The Main Road.
There
was one thing only left to be done; the sanitary orders of Uganda
required every man to build himself a house of parliament, such
being the neat and cleanly nature of the Waganda - a pattern to
all other negro tribes.
15th. - As nobody could obtain an interview with the king
yesterday, I went to the palace to-day, and fired three shots - a
signal which was at once answered from within by a double
discharge of a gun I had just lent him on his returning my rifle.
In a little while, as soon as he had time to dress, the king,
walking like a lion, sallied forth, leading his white dog, and
beckoned me to follow him to the state hut, the court of which
was filled with squatting men as usual, well dressed, and keeping
perfect order. He planted himself on his throne, and begged me
to sit by his side. Then took place the usual scene of a court
levee, as described in Chapter X., with the specialty, in this
instance, that the son of the chief executioner - one of the
highest officers of state - was led off for execution, for some
omission or informality in his n'yanzigs, or salutes.
At this levee sundry Wakungu of rank complained that the Wanyambo
plundered their houses at night, and rough-handled their women,
without any respect for their greatness, and, when caught, said
they were Bana's men. Bombay, who was present, heard the
complaint, and declared these were Suwarora's men, who made use
of the proximity of my camp to cover their own transgressions.
Then Suwarora's deputation, who were also present, cringed
forward, n'yanzigging like Waganda, and denied the accusation,
when the king gave all warning that he would find out the truth
by placing guards on the look-out at night.
Till this time the king had not heard one word about the defeat
of the party sent for Petherick. His kingdom might have been
lost, and he would have been no wiser; when the officer who led
Mabruki came forward and told him all that had happened, stating,
in addition to what I heard before, that they took eighty men
with them, and went into battle three times successfully.
Dismissing business, however, the king turned to me, and said he
never saw anything so wonderful as my shooting in his life; he
was sure it was done by magic, as my gun never missed, and he
wished I would instruct him in the art. When I denied there was
any art in shooting, further than holding the gun straight, he
shook his head, and getting me to load his revolving pistol for
him, he fired all five barrels into two cows before the
multitude.
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