They Were
The King's Pages; And, Producing Three Sticks, Said They Had
Brought Them To Me From Their King, Who Wanted Three Charms Or
Medicines.
Then placing one stick on the ground before me, they
said, "This one is a head which, being affected
By dreams of a
deceased relative, requires relief"; the second symbolised the
king's desire for the accomplishment of a phenomenon to which the
old phalic worship was devoted; "and this third one," they said,
"is a sign that the king wants a charm to keep all his subjects
in awe of him." I then promised I would do what I could when I
reached the palace, but feared to do anything in the distance. I
wished to go on with the march, but was dissuaded by N'yamgundu,
who said he had received orders to find me some cows here, as his
king was most anxious I should be well fed. Next day, however,
we descended into the Katonga valley, where, instead of finding a
magnificent broad sheet of water, as I had been led to expect by
the Arabs' account of it, I found I had to wade through a
succession of rush-drains divided one from the other by islands.
It took me two hours, with my clothes tucked up under my arms, to
get through them all; and many of them were so matted with weeds,
that my feet sank down as though I trod in a bog.
The Waganda all said that at certain times in the year no one
could ford these drains, as they all flooded; but, strangely
enough, they were always lowest when most rain fell in Uganda.
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