We Were Beckoned To Squat Alongside Nnanaji, The
Master Of Ceremonies, And A Large Group Of High Officials Outside
The Porch.
Then the thirty-five drums all struck up together in
very good harmony; and when their deafening noise was over, a
smaller band of hand-drums and reed instruments was ordered in to
amuse us.
This second performance over, from want of breath only, district
officers, one by one, came advancing on tip-toe, then pausing,
contorting and quivering their bodies, advancing again with a
springing gait and outspread arms, which they moved as if they
wished to force them out of their joints, in all of which actions
they held drum-sticks or twigs in their hands, swore with a
maniacal voice an oath of their loyalty and devotion to their
king, backed by the expression of a hope that he would cut off
their heads if they ever turned from his enemies, and then,
kneeling before him, they held out their sticks that he might
touch them. With a constant reiteration of these scenes - the
saluting at one time, the music at another - interrupted only once
by a number of girls dancing something like a good rough Highland
fling whilst the little band played, the day's ceremonies ended.
6th and 7th. - During the next two days, as my men had all worn
out their clothes, I gave them each thirty necklaces of beads to
purchase a suit of the bark cloth called mbugu, already
described. Finding the flour of the country too bitter to eat by
itself, we sweetened it with ripe plantains, and made a good cake
of it. The king now, finding me disinclined to fight his brother
Rogero, either with guns or magic horns, asked me to give him a
"doctor" or charm to create longevity and to promote the increase
of his family, as his was not large enough to maintain the
dignity of so great a man as himself. I gave him a blister, and,
changing the subject, told him the history of the creation of
man. After listening to it attentively, he asked what thing in
creation I considered the greatest of all things in the world;
for whilst a man at most could only live one hundred years, a
tree lived many; but the earth ought to be biggest, for it never
died.
I then told him again I wished one of his sons would accompany me
to England, that he might learn the history of Moses, wherein he
would find that men had souls which live for ever, but that the
earth would come to an end in the fullness of time. This
conversation, diversified by numerous shrewd remarks on the part
of Rumanika, led to his asking how I could account for the
decline of countries, instancing the dismemberment of the Wahuma
in Kittara, and remarking that formerly Karague included Urundi,
Ruanda, and Kishakka, which collectively were known as the
kingdom of Meru, governed by one man. Christian principles, I
said, made us what we are, and feeling a sympathy for him made me
desirous of taking one of his children to learn in the same
school with us, who, on returning to him, could impart what he
knew, and, extending the same by course of instruction, would
doubtless end by elevating his country to a higher position than
it ever knew before, - etc., etc.
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