Ah!" And all the men of the camp
laugh together at the wretched Ntalo's defeat; but Ntalo won't be
done, so retorts by saying, "Sangizo, you may laugh at me because
I am an orphan, but what are you?
You are a savage - a Mshezi; you
come from the Mashenzi, and you wear skins, not cloths, as men
do; so hold your impudent tongue"; - and the camp pealed with
merry boisterous laughter again.
9th. - Early in the morning, and whilst I was in bed, the king
sent his pages to request me to visit his royal mother, with some
specific for the itch, with which her majesty was then afflicted.
I said I could not go so far in the sun; I would wait till I
received the promised palace near her. In the meanwhile I
prepared to call on him. I observed, in fact, that I was an
object of jealousy between the two courts, and that, if I acted
skilfully and decidedly, I might become master of the situation,
and secure my darling object of a passage northwards. The boys
returned, bringing a pistol to be cleaned, and a message to say
it was no use my thinking of calling on the king - that I must go
to the queen immediately, for she was very ill. So far the queen
won the day, but I did not obtain my new residence, which I
considered the first step to accomplishing the greater object; I
therefore put the iron farther in the fire by saying I was no
man's slave, and I should not go until I got a house in the
palace - Bombay could teach the boys the way to clean the pistol.
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