He Would Like Me To Go With Him
And Attack The Island His Three Brothers, Rionga, Wahitu, And
Pohuka, Are In Possession Of.
When I said I never fought with
black men, he wished to know if I would not shoot them if they
attacked me.
My replay was, alluding to our fight in the river,
"How did N'yamyonjo's men fare?" I found that Kamrasi had thirty
brothers and as many sisters.
4th. - I gave Kamrasi a bottle of quinine, which we call "strong
back," and asked him in return for a horn containing all the
powders necessary to give me the gift of tongues, so that I
should be able to converse with any black men whom I might meet
with. We heard that Kamrasi has called all his Gani guests to
play before him, and a double shot from his Blissett rifle
announced to our ears that he in turn was amusing them. 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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 352 of 403
Words from 184032 to 184548
of 210958
