This Was
Most Opportune; For The King Asked What He Had Been About, And
Then The True State Of The Case As Regards My Difficulties In
Obtaining Food Were, I Fancy, For The First Time, Made Known To
Him.
In a great fit of indignation he said, "I once killed a
hundred Wakungu in a single day, and
Now, if they won't feed my
guests, I will kill a hundred more; for I know the physic for
bumptiousness." Then, sending his brothers away, he asked me to
follow him into the back part of the palace, as he loved me so
much he must show me everything. We walked along under the
umbrella, first looking down one street of huts, then up another,
and, finally, passing the sleeping-chamber, stopped at one
adjoining it. "That hut," said the king, "is the one I sleep in;
no one of my wives dare venture within it unless I call her." He
let me feel immediately that for the distinction conferred on me
in showing me this sacred hut a return was expected. Could I
after that refuse him such a mere trifle as a compass? I told
him he might as well put my eyes out and ask me to walk home, as
take away that little instrument, which could be of no use to
him, as he could not read or understand it. But this only
excited his cupidity; he watched it twirling round and pointing
to the north, and looked and begged again, until, tired of his
importunities, I told him I must wait until the Usoga road was
open before I could part with it, and then the compass would be
nothing to what I would give him. Hearing this, "That is all on
my shoulders; as sure as I live it shall be done; for that
country has no king, and I have long been desirous of taking it."
I declined, however, to give him the instrument on the security
of his promise, and he went to breakfast.
I walked off to Usungu to see what I could do for him in his
misery. I found that he had a complication of evils entirely
beyond my healing power, and among them inveterate forms of the
diseases which are generally associated with civilisation and its
social evils. I could do nothing to cure him, but promised to do
whatever was in my power to alleviate his sufferings.
24th. - Before breakfast I called on poor Usungu, prescribing hot
coffee to be drunk with milk every morning, which astonished him
not a little, as the negroes only use coffee for chewing. He
gave my men pombe and plantains. On my return I met a page sent
to invite me to the palace. I found the king sitting with a
number of women. He was dressed in European clothes, part of them
being a pair of trousers he begged for yesterday, that he might
appear like Bana. This was his first appearance in trousers, and
his whole attire, contrasting strangely with his native
habiliments, was in his opinion very becoming, though to me a
little ridiculous; for the legs of the trousers, as well as the
sleeves of the waistcoat, were much too short, so that his black
feet and hands stuck out at the extremities as an organ-player's
monkey's do, whilst the cockscomb on his head prevented a fez
cap, which was part of his special costume for the occasion, from
sitting properly. This display over, the women were sent away,
and I saw shown into a court, where a large number of plantains
were placed in a line upon the ground for my men to take away,
and we were promised the same treat every day. From this we
proceeded to another court, where we sat in the shade together,
when the women returned again, but were all dumb, because my
interpreters dared not for their lives say anything, even on my
account, to the king's women. Getting tired, I took out my
sketch-book and drew Lubuga, the pet, which amused the king
immensely as he recognised her cockscomb.
Then twenty naked virgins, the daughters of Wakungu, all smeared
and shining with grease, each holding a small square of mbugu for
a fig-leaf, marched in a line before us, as a fresh addition to
the harem, whilst the happy fathers floundered n'yanzigging on
the ground, delighted to find their darlings appreciated by the
king. Seeing this done in such a quiet mild way before all my
men, who dared not lift their heads to see it, made me burst into
a roar of laughter, and the king, catching the infection from me,
laughed as well: but the laughing did not end there - for the
pages, for once giving way to nature, kept bursting - my men
chuckled in sudden gusts - while even the women, holding their
mouths for fear of detection, responded - and we all laughed
together. Then a sedate old dame rose from the squatting mass,
ordered the virgins to right-about, and marched them off, showing
their still more naked reverses. I now obtained permission for
the Wakungu to call upon me, and fancied I only required my
interpreters to speak out like men when I had anything to say, to
make my residence in Uganda both amusing and instructive; but
though the king, carried off by the prevailing good-humour of the
scene we had both witnessed, supported me, I found that he had
counter-ordered what he had said as soon as I had gone, and, in
fact, no Mkungu ever dared come near me.
25th. - To-day I visited Usungu again, and found him better. He
gave pombe and plantains for my people, but would not talk to me,
though I told him he had permission to call on me.
I have now been for some time within the court precincts, and
have consequently had an opportunity of witnessing court customs.
Among these, nearly every day since I have changed my residence,
incredible as it may appear to be, I have seen one, two, or three
of the wretched palace women led away to execution, tied by the
hand, and dragged along by one of the body-guard, crying out, as
she went to premature death, "Hai Minange!" (O my lord!)
"Kbakka!" (My king!) "Hai N'yawo!" (My mother!) at the top of her
voice, in the utmost despair and lamentation; and yet there was
not a soul who dared lift hand to save any of them, though many
might be heard privately commenting on their beauty.
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