14th. - As Conflicting Reports Came About Grant, The King Very
Courteously, At My Request, Forwarded Letters To Him.
I passed
the day in distilling pombe, and the evening in calling on Mrs
Dumba, with Meri, Kahala, Lugoi, and a troop of Wanyamuezi women.
She was very agreeable; but as her husband was attending the
palace, could not give pombe, and instead gave my female escort
sundry baskets of plaintains and potatoes, signifying a dinner,
and walked half-way home, flirting with me as before.
15th - I called on the king with all the spirits I had made, as
well as the saccharine residue. We found him holding a levee,
and receiving his offerings of a batch of girls, cows, goats, and
other things of an ordinary nature. One of the goats presented
gave me an opportunity of hearing one of the strangest stories I
had yet heard in this strange country: it was a fine for
attempted regicide, which happened yesterday, when a boy, finding
the king alone, which is very unusual, walked up to him and
threatened to kill him, because, he said, he took the lives of
men unjustly. The king explained by description and pantomime
how the affair passed. When the youth attacked him he had in his
hand the revolving pistol I had given him, and showed us, holding
the pistol to his cheek, how he had presented the muzzle to the
boy, which, though it was unloaded, so frightened him that he ran
away. All the courtiers n'yanzigged vigorously for the
condescension of the king in telling the story.
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