Halting For The Moment, A Message Was Immediately Received
That We Should Proceed; We Accordingly Entered Through A Narrow Passage
Between High Reed Fences, And I Found Myself In The Presence Of The
Actual King Of Unyoro, Kamrasi.
He was sitting in a kind of porch in
front of a hut, and upon seeing me he hardly
Condescended to look at me
for more than a moment; he then turned to his attendants and made some
remark that appeared to amuse them, as they all grinned as little men
are wont to do when a great man makes a bad joke.
I had ordered one of my men to carry my stool; I was determined not to
sit upon the earth, as the king would glory in my humiliation. M'Gambi,
his brother, who had formerly played the part of king, now sat upon the
ground a few feet from Kamrasi, who was seated upon the same stool of
copper that M'Gambi had used when I first saw him at M'rooli. Several of
his chiefs also sat upon the straw with which the porch was littered. I
made a "salaam," and took my seat upon my stool. Not a word passed
between us for about five minutes, during which time the king eyed me
most attentively, and made various remarks to the chiefs who were
present; at length he asked me why I had not been to see him before? I
replied, "Because I had been starved in his country, and I was too weak
to walk." He said - I should soon be strong, as he would now give me a
good supply of food, but that he could not send provisions to Shooa
Moru, as Fowooka held that country. Without replying to this wretched
excuse for his neglect, I merely told him that I was happy to have seen
him before my departure, as I was not aware until recently that I had
been duped by M'Gambi. He answered me very coolly, saying that although
I had not seen him he had nevertheless seen me, as he was among the
crowd of native escort on the day that we left M'rooli. Thus he had
watched our start at the very place where his brother M'Gambi had
impersonated the king.
Kamrasi was a remarkably fine man, tall and well proportioned, with a
handsome face of a dark brown colour, but a peculiarly sinister
expression; he was beautifully clean, and instead of wearing the bark
cloth common among the people, he was dressed in a fine mantle of black
and white goatskins, as soft as chamois leather. His people sat on the
ground at some distance from his throne; when they approached to address
him on any subject they crawled upon their hands and knees to his feet,
and touched the ground with their foreheads.
True to his natural instincts, the king commenced begging, and being
much struck with the Highland costume, he demanded it as a proof of
friendship, saying, that if I refused I could not be his friend.
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