This Neat Message Elicited With A Declaration Of The
Necessity Of Budja's Going To Gani With Us, And A Response
From
the commander-in-chief, probably to terrify the Waganda, that
although Gani was only nine days' journey distant from
Kamrasi's
palace, the Gani people were such barbarians, they would call a
straight-haired man a magician, and any person who tied his mbugu
in a knot upon his shoulder, or had a full set of teeth as the
Waganda have, would be surely killed by them. Finally, we must
wait two days, to see if Kamrasi would see us or not. Such was
Unyoro diplomacy.
An announcement of a different kind immediately followed. The
king had heard that I gave a cow to Vittagura and Kidgwiga when
they first came to me in Uganda, and wished the Wanyamuezi to
ascertain if this was true. Of course, I said they were my
guests in Uganda, and if they had been wise they would have eaten
their cow on the spot; what was that to Kamrasi? It was a pity
he did not treat us as well who have come into his country at his
own invitation, instead of keeping us starving in this gloomy
wilderness, without a drop of pombe to cheer the day; - why could
not he let us go on? He wanted first to hear if the big Mzungu,
meaning myself, had really come yet. All fudge!
Three days were spent in simply waiting for return messages on
both sides, and more might have been lost in the same way, only
we amused Vittagura and gave him confidence by showing our
pictures, looking-glass, scissors, knives, etc., when he promised
a march in the morning, leaving a man behind to bring on the
Wanguana sent to Mtesa's, it being the only alternative which
would please Budja; for he said there was no security for life in
Unyoro, where every Mkungu calls himself the biggest man, and no
true hospitality is to be found.
The next two days took us through Chagamoyo to Kiratosi, by the
aid of the compass; for the route Kamrasi's men took differed
from the one which Budja knew, and he declared the Wanyoro were
leading us into a trap, and would not be convinced we were going
on all right till I pulled out the compass and confirmed the
Wanyoro. We were anything but welcomed at Kiratosi, the people
asking by what bad luck we had come there to eat up their crops;
but in a little while they flocked to our doors and admired our
traps, remarking that they believed each iron box contained a
couple of white dwarfs, which we carry on our shoulders, sitting
straddle-legs, back to back, and they fly off to eat people
whenever they get the order. One of these visitors happened to
be the sister of one of my men, named Baruti, who no sooner
recognised her brother, than, without saying a word, she clasped
her head with her hands, and ran off, crying, to tell her husband
what she had seen.
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