How I Found Livingstone Travels, Adventures And Discoveries In Central Africa Including Four Months Residence With Dr. Livingstone By Sir Henry M. Stanley
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After Gazing
In Stupid Wonder At The Table, On Which Was Placed Some Crockery
And The Few Books I Carried With Me; At The Slung Hammock, Which
He Believed Was Suspended By Some Magical Contrivance; At The
Portmanteaus Which Contained My Stock Of Clothes, He Ejaculated,
"Hi-Le!
The Musungu is a great sultan, who has come from his
country to see Ugogo." He then noticed me,
And was again wonder-
struck at my pale complexion and straight hair, and the question
now propounded was, "How on earth was I white when the sun had
burned his people's skins into blackness?" Whereupon he was
shown my cork topee, which he tried on his woolly head, much
to his own and to our amusement. The guns were next shown to
him; the wonderful repeating rifle of the Winchester Company,
which was fired thirteen times in rapid succession to demonstrate
its remarkable murderous powers. If he was astonished before
he was a thousand times more so now, and expressed his belief
that the Wagogo could not stand before the Musungu in battle,
for wherever a Mgogo was seen such a gun would surely kill him.
Then the other firearms were brought forth, each with its
peculiar mechanism explained, until, in, a burst of enthusiasm
at my riches and power, he said he would send me a sheep or goat,
and that he would be my brother. I thanked him for the honour,
and promised to accept whatever he was pleased to send me. At
the instigation of Sheikh Thani, who acted as interpreter, who
said that Wagogo chiefs must not depart with empty hands, I cut
off a shukka of Kaniki and presented it to him, which, after
being examined and measured, was refused upon the ground that,
the Musungu being a great sultan should not demean himself so much
as to give him only a shukka. This, after the twelve doti
received as muhongo from the caravans, I thought, was rather
sore; but as he was about to present me with a sheep or goat
another shukka would not matter much.
Shortly after he departed, and true to his promise, I received
a large, fine sheep, with a broad tail, heavy with fat; but with
the words, :"That being now his brother, I must send him three
doti of good cloth." As the price of a sheep is but a doti and
a half, I refused the sheep and the fraternal honour, upon the
ground that the gifts were all on one side; and that, as I had
paid muhongo, and given him a doti of Kaniki as a present, I
could not, afford to part with any more cloth without an
adequate return.
During the afternoon one more of my donkeys died, and at night the
hyaenas came in great numbers to feast upon the carcase. Ulimengo,
the chasseur, and best shot of my Wangwana, stole out and succeeded
in shooting two, which turned out to be some of the largest of
their kind.. One of them measured six feet from the tip of the
nose to the extremity of the tail, and three feet around the
girth.
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