But What Led Us This Way We Have Told You Before;
It Was To See Your Majesty In Particular, And
The great kings of
Africa - and at the same time to open another road to the north,
whereby the best
Manufactures or Europe would find their way to
Karague, and you would get so many more guests." In the highest
good-humour the king said, "As you have come to see me and see
sights, I will order some boats and show you over the lake, with
musicians to play before you, or anything else that you like."
Then, after looking over our pictures with intensest delight, and
admiring our beds, boxes, and outfit in general, he left for the
day.
In the afternoon, as I had heard from Musa that the wives of the
king and princes were fattened to such an extent that they could
not stand upright, I paid my respects to Wazezeru, the king's
eldest brother - who, having been born before his father ascended
the throne, did not come in the line of succession - with the hope
of being able to see for myself the truth of the story. There
was no mistake about it. On entering the hut I found the old man
and his chief wife sitting side by side on a bench of earth
strewed over with grass, and partitioned like stalls for sleeping
apartments, whilst in front of them were placed numerous wooden
pots of milk, and hanging from the poles that supported the
beehive-shaped hut, a large collection of bows six feet in
length, whilst below them were tied an even larger collection of
spears, intermixed with a goodly assortment of heavy-headed
assages. I was struck with no small surprise at the way he
received me, as well as with the extraordinary dimensions, yet
pleasing beauty, of the immoderately fat fair one his wife. She
could not rise; and so large were her arms that, between the
joints, the flesh hung down like large, loose-stuffed puddings.
Then in came their children, all models of the Abyssinian type of
beauty, and as polite in their manners as thorough-bred
gentlemen. They had heard of my picture-books from the king, and
all wished to see them; which they no sooner did, to their
infinite delight, especially when they recognised any of the
animals, then the subject was turned by my inquiring what they
did with so many milk-pots. This was easily explained by
Wazezeru himself, who, pointing to his wife, said, "This is all
the product of those pots: from early youth upwards we keep those
pots to their mouths, as it is the fashion at court to have very
fat wives."
27th. - Ever anxious to push on with the journey, as I felt every
day's delay only tended to diminish my means - that is, my beads
and copper wire - I instructed Bombay to take the under-mentioned
articles to Rumanika as a small sample of the products of my
country;[FN#11] to say I felt quite ashamed of their being so few
and so poor, but I hoped he would forgive my shortcomings, as he
knew I had been so often robbed on the way to him; and I trusted,
in recollection of Musa, he would give me leave to go on to
Uganda, for every day's delay was consuming my supplies.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 144 of 403
Words from 75021 to 75586
of 210958
