This Was Easily Explained By
Wazezeru Himself, Who, Pointing To His Wife, Said, "This Is All
The Product Of Those Pots:
From early youth upwards we keep those
pots to their mouths, as it is the fashion at court to have very
fat wives."
27th. - Ever anxious to push on with the journey, as I felt every
day's delay only tended to diminish my means - that is, my beads
and copper wire - I instructed Bombay to take the under-mentioned
articles to Rumanika as a small sample of the products of my
country;[FN#11] to say I felt quite ashamed of their being so few
and so poor, but I hoped he would forgive my shortcomings, as he
knew I had been so often robbed on the way to him; and I trusted,
in recollection of Musa, he would give me leave to go on to
Uganda, for every day's delay was consuming my supplies.
Nnanaji, however, it was said, should get something; so, in
addition to the king's present, I apportioned one out for him,
and Bombay took both up to the palace.[FN#12] Everybody, I was
pleased to hear, was surprised with both the quantity and quality
of what I had been able to find for them; for, after the
plundering in Ugogo, the immense consumption caused by such long
delays on the road, the fearful prices I had had to pay for my
porters' wages, the enormous taxes I had been forced to give both
in Msalala and Uzinza, besides the constant thievings in camp,
all of which was made public by the constantly-recurring tales of
my men, nobody thought I had got anything left.
Rumanika, above all, was as delighted as if he had come in for a
fortune, and sent to say the Raglan coat was a marvel, and the
scarlet broadcloth the finest thing he had ever seen. Nobody but
Musa had ever given him such beautiful beads before, and none
ever gave with such free liberality. Whatever I wanted I should
have in return for it, as it was evident to him I had really done
him a great honour in visiting him. Neither his father nor any
of his forefathers had had such a great favour shown them. He
was alarmed, he confessed, when he heard we were coming to visit
him, thinking we might prove some fearful monsters that were not
quite human, but now he was delighted beyond all measure with
what he saw of us. A messenger should be sent at once to the king
of Uganda to inform him of our intention to visit him, with his
own favourable report of us. This was necessary according to the
etiquette of the country. Without such a recommendation our
progress would be stopped by the people, whilst with one word
from him all would go straight; for was he not the gatekeeper,
enjoying the full confidence of Uganda? A month, however, must
elapse, as the distance to the palace of Uganda was great; but,
in the meantime, he would give me leave to go about in his
country to do and see what I liked, Nnanaji and his sons
escorting me everywhere. Moreover, when the time came for my
going on to Uganda, if I had not enough presents to give the
king, he would fill up the complement from his own stores, and
either go with me himself, or send Nnanaji to conduct me as far
as the boundary of Uganda, in order that Rogero might not molest
us on the way. In the evening, Masudi, with Sangoro and several
other merchants, came up from Kufro to pay us a visit of respect.
28th and 29th. - A gentle hint having come to us that the king's
brother, Wazezeru, expected a trifle in virtue of his rank, I
sent him a blanket and seventy-five blue egg-beads. These were
accepted with the usual good grace of these people. The king
then, ever attentive to our position as guests, sent his royal
musicians to give us a tune. The men composing the band were a
mixture of Waganda and Wanyambo, who played on reed instruments
made telescope fashion, marking time by hand-drums. At first
they marched up and down, playing tunes exactly like the
regimental bands of the Turks, and then commenced dancing a
species of "hornpipe," blowing furiously all the while. When
dismissed with some beads, Nnanaji dropped in and invited me to
accompany him out shooting on the slopes of the hills overlooking
the lake. He had in attendance all the king's sons, as well as a
large number of beaters, with three or four dogs. Tripping down
the greensward of the hills together, these tall, athletic
princes every now and then stopped to see who could shoot
furthest, and I must say I never witnessed better feats in my
life. With powerful six-feet-long bows they pulled their arrows'
heads up to the wood, and made wonderful shots in the distance.
They then placed me in position, and arranging the field, drove
the covers like men well accustomed to sport - indeed, it struck
me they indulged too much in that pleasure, for we saw nothing
but two or three montana and some diminutive antelopes, about the
size of mouse deer, and so exceedingly shy that not one was
bagged.
Returning home to the tents as the evening sky was illumined with
the red glare of the sun, my attention was attracted by observing
in the distance some bold sky-scraping cones situated in the
country Ruanda, which at once brought back to recollection the
ill-defined story I had heard from the Arabs of a wonderful hill
always covered with clouds, on which snow or hail was constantly
falling. This was a valuable discovery, for I found these hills
to be the great turn-point of the Central African watershed.
Without loss of time I set to work, and, gathering all the
travellers I could in the country, protracted, from their
descriptions, all the distance topographical features set down in
the map, as far north as 3§ of north latitude, as far east as
36§, and as far west as 26§ of east longitude; only afterwards
slightly corrected, as I was better able to connect and clear up
some trifling but doubtful points.
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