This Important Personage Had Been Hitherto Overlooked By The Landers, That Is, They Had Not As Yet Made Him Any

Present; in order, however, to let them know that there was such a being in existence, he sent them a

Sheep as a present, on the principle of the English adage, of throwing a sprat to catch a mackerel. A present from an African master of the horse is not a disinterested gift; he had seen the presents delivered to the king, and he ardently longed for a slip of the red cloth wherewith to decorate his person, and set off the jetty blackness of his skin.

The pride of an African dignitary will not allow him to beg, and therefore he conjectured that on the receipt of his present of the sheep, common courtesy would instruct the Landers to return the compliment, by a present of some European article of corresponding value. Nor was the master of the horse wrong in his conjectures, for a present was sent him, and to his great delight a strip of red cloth was included in it. The unfortunate master of the horse, however, discovered, that although he filled the high office of master of the horse, he was not master of himself, nor was he master of that, which he believed did in reality belong to him, for his master and king no sooner heard that he had received a present of a piece of red cloth, than his majesty discovered that it was a colour, which royalty alone was entitled to wear.

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