I Had Not Been
Able To Send Presents Or Bribes To Any One, Nor Had Any One,
Except The Cockaded
Pages, by the king's order, visited me;
neither was anybody permitted to sell me provisions, so that my
men had
To feed themselves by taking anything they chose from
certain gardens pointed out by the king's officers, or by seizing
pombe or plantains which they might find Waganda carrying towards
the palace. This non-interventive order was part of the royal
policy, in order that the king might have the full fleecing of
his visitors.
To call upon the queen-mother respectfully, as it was the opening
visit, I too, besides the medicine-chest, a present of eight
brass and copper wire, thirty blue-egg beads, one bundle of
diminutive beads, and sixteen cubits of chintz, a small guard,
and my throne of royal grass. The palace to be visited lay half
a mile beyond the king's, but the highroad to it was forbidden
me, as it is considered uncourteous to pass the king's gate
without going in. So after winding through back-gardens, the
slums of Bandowaroga, I struck upon the highroad close to her
majesty's, where everything looked like the royal palace on a
miniature scale. A large cleared space divided the queen's
residence from her Kamraviona's. The outer enclosures and courts
were fenced with tiger-grass; and the huts, though neither so
numerous nor so large, were constructed after the same fashion as
the king's. Guards also kept the doors, on which large bells
were hung to give alarm, and officers in waiting watched the
throne-rooms. All the huts were full of women, save those kept
as waiting-rooms; where drums and harmonicons were played for
amusement. On first entering, I was required to sit in a
waiting-hut till my arrival was announced; but that did not take
long, as the queen was prepared to receive me; and being of a
more affable disposition than her son, she held rather a levee of
amusement than a stiff court of show. I entered the throne-hut
as the gate of that court was thrown open, with my hat off, but
umbrella held over my head, and walked straight towards her till
ordered to sit upon my bundle of grass.
Her majesty - fat, fair, and forty-five - was sitting, plainly
garbed in mbugu, upon a carpet spread upon the ground within a
curtain of mbugu, her elbow resting on a pillow of the same bark
material; the only ornaments on her person being an abrus
necklace, and a piece of mbugu tied round her head, whilst a
folding looking-glass, much the worse for wear, stood open by her
side. An iron rod like a spit, with a cup on the top, charged
with magic powder, and other magic wands, were placed before the
entrance; and within the room, four Mabandwa sorceresses or
devil-drivers, fantastically dressed, as before described, and a
mass of other women, formed the company. For a short while we sat
at a distance, exchanging inquiring glances at one another, when
the women were dismissed, and a band of music, with a court full
of Wakungu, was ordered in to change the scene. I also got orders
to draw near and sit fronting her within the hut. Pombe, the best
in Uganda, was then drunk by the queen, and handed to me and to
all the high officers about her, when she smoked her pipe, and
bade me smoke mine. The musicians, dressed in long-haired Usoga
goat-skins, were now ordered to strike up, which they did, with
their bodies swaying or dancing like bears in a fair. Different
drums were then beat, and I was asked if I could distinguish
their different tones.
The queen, full of mirth, now suddenly rose, leaving me sitting,
whilst she went to another hut, changed her mbugu for a deole,
and came back again for us to admire her, which was no sooner
done to her heart's content, than a second time, by her order,
the court was cleared, and, when only three or four confidential
Wakungu were left, she took up a small faggot of well-trimmed
sticks, and, selecting three, told me she had three complains.
"This stick," she says, "represents my stomach, which gives me
much uneasiness; this second stick my liver, which causes
shooting pains all over my body; and this third one my heart, for
I get constant dreams at night about Sunna, my late husband, and
they are not pleasant." The dreams and sleeplessness I told her
was a common widow's complaint, and could only be cured by her
majesty making up her mind to marry a second time; but before I
could advise for the bodily complaints, it would be necessary for
me to see her tongue, feel her pulse, and perhaps, also, her
sides. Hearing this, the Wakungu said, "Oh, that can never be
allowed without the sanction of the king"; but the queen, rising
in her seat, expressed her scorn at the idea to taking advice
from a mere stripling, and submitted herself for examination.
I then took out two pills, the powder of which was tasted by the
Wakungu to prove that there was no devilry in "the doctor," and
gave orders for them to be eaten at night, restricting her pombe
and food until I saw her again. My game was now advancing, for I
found through her I should get the key to an influence that might
bear on the king, and was much pleased to hear her express
herself delighted with me for everything I had done except
stopping her grog, which, naturally enough in this great pombe-
drinking country, she said would be a very trying abstinence.
The doctoring over, her majesty expressed herself ready to
inspect the honorarium I had brought for her, and the articles
were no sooner presented by Bombay and Nasib, with the usual
formalities of stroking to insure their purity, than she, boiling
with pleasure, showed them all to her officers, who declared,
with a voice of most exquisite triumph, that she was indeed the
most favoured of queens.
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