The Spirit Of This Religion - If Such It Can Be Called - Is Not So Much Adoration Of A Being Supreme And Beneficent, As A Tax To Certain Malignant Furies - A Propitiation, In Fact, To Prevent Them Bringing Evil On The Land, And To Insure A Fruitful Harvest.

It was rather ominous that hail fell with violence, and lightning burnt down one of the palace huts, while the king was in the midst of his propitiatory devotions.

1st. - As Bombay was ordered to the palace to instruct the king in the art of casting bullets, I primed him well to plead for the road, and he reported to me the results, thus: First, he asked one thousand men to go through Kidi. This the king said was impracticable, as the Waganda had tried it so often before without success. Then, as that could not be managed, what would the king devise himself? Bana only proposed the Usoga and Kidi route, because he thought it would be to the advantage of Uganda. "Oh," says the king, cunningly, "if Bana merely wishes to see Usoga, he can do so, and I will send a suitable escort, but no more." To this Bombay replied, "Bana never could return; he would sooner do anything than return - even penetrate the Masai to Zanzibar, or go through Unyoro"; to which the king, ashamed of his impotence, hung down his head and walked away.

In the meanwhile, and whilst this was going on at the king's palace, I went with Grant, by appointment, to see the queen.

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