An Anti-Christian Interpretation Of Omens, As Rife In
These Dark Regions Now As It Was In The Time Of King
Nebuchadnezzar.
At midnight the three muskets were returned, and
I was so pleased with the young king's promptitude and honesty, I
begged he would accept them.
23d. - At noon Mtesa sent his pages to invite me to his palace. I
went, with my guard of honour and my stool, but found I had to
sit waiting in an ante-hut three hours with his commander-in-
chief and other high officers before he was ready to see me.
During this time Wasoga minstrels, playing on tambira, and
accompanied by boys playing on a harmonicon, kept us amused; and
a small page, with a large bundle of grass, came to me and said,
"The king hopes you won't be offended if required to sit on it
before him; for no person in Uganda, however high in office, is
ever allowed to sit upon anything raised above the ground, nor
can anybody but himself sit upon such grass as this; it is all
that his throne is made of. The first day he only allowed you to
sit on your stool to appease your wrath."
On consenting to do in "Rome as the Romans do," when my position
was so handsomely acknowledged, I was called in, and found the
court sitting much as it was on the first day's interview, only
that the number of squatting Wakungu was much diminished; and the
king, instead of wearing his ten brass and copper rings, had my
gold one on his third finger.
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