Their
Only Occupation In Life Consisted Of Drinking Milk, Of Which Each
One Consumes The Produce Daily Of From Ten To Twenty Cows, And
Hence They Become So Inordinately Fat That They Cannot Walk.
Should they wish to see a relative, or go outside the hut for any
purpose, it requires eight men to lift any of them on a litter.
The brothers, too, are not allowed to go out of his reach. This
confinement of the palace family is considered a state necessity,
as a preventive to civil wars, in the same way as the
destruction of the Uganda princes, after a certain season, is
thought necessary for the preservation of peace there.
7th. - In the morning the Kamraviona called, on the king's behalf,
to inquire after my health, and also to make some important
communications. First he was to request a supply of bullets,
that the king might fire a salute when Bombay returned from Gani;
next, to ask for stimulative medicine, now that he had consumed
all I gave him, and gone through the preliminary course; further,
to request I would spread a charm over all his subjects, so that
their hearts might be inclined towards him, and they would come
without calling and bow down at his feet; finally, he wished me
to exchange my blood with him, that we might be brothers till
death. I sent the bullets, advised him to wait a day or two for
the medicine, and said there was only one charm by which he could
gain the influence he required over his subjects - this was,
knowledge and the power of the pen.
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