The Mkungu's Women Brought Pombe, And Spent The Day Gazing
At Us, Till, In The Evening, When I Took Up
My rifle, one ran
after Bana to see him shoot, and followed like a man; but the
only sport she
Got was on an ant-hill, where she fixed herself
some time, popping into her mouth and devouring the white ants as
fast as they emanated from their cells - for, disdaining does, I
missed the only pongo buck I got a shot at in my anxiety to show
the fair one what she came for.
Reports came to-day of new cruelties at the palace. Kasoro
improved on their off-hand manslaughter by saying that two
Kamravionas and two Sakibobos, as well as all the old Wakungu of
Sunna's time, had been executed by the orders of king Mtesa. He
told us, moreover, that if Mtesa ever has a dream that his father
directs him to kill anybody as being dangerous to his person, the
order is religiously kept. I wished to send a message to Mtesa
by an officer who is starting at once to pay his respects at
court; but although he received it, and promised to deliver it,
Kasoro laughed at me for expecting that one word of it would ever
reach the king; for, however, appropriate or important the matter
might be, it was more than anybody dare do to tell the king, as
it would be an infringement of the rule that no one is to speak
to him unless in answer to a question. My second buck of the
first day was brought in by the natives, but they would not allow
it to approach the hut until it had been skinned; and I found
their reason to be a superstition that otherwise no others would
ever be killed by the inmates of that establishment.
I marched up the left bank of the Nile at a considerable distance
from the water, to the Isamba rapids, passing through rich jungle
and plantain-gardens. Nango, an old friend, and district officer
of the place, first refreshed us with a dish of plantain-squash
and dried fish, with pombe. He told us he is often threatened by
elephants, but he sedulously keeps them off with charms; for if
they ever tasted a plantain they would never leave the garden
until they had cleared it out. He then took us to see the
nearest falls of the Nile - extremely beautiful, but very
confined. The water ran deep between its banks, which were
covered with fine grass, soft cloudy acacias, and festoons of
lilac convolvuli; whilst here and there, where the land had
slipped above the rapids, bared places of red earth could be
seen, like that of Devonshire; there, too, the waters, impeded by
a natural dam, looked like a huge mill-pond, sullen and dark, in
which two crocodiles, laving about, were looking out for prey.
From the high banks we looked down upon a line of sloping wooded
islets lying across the stream, which divide its waters, and, by
interrupting them, cause at once both dam and rapids. The whole
was more fairy-like, wild, and romantic than - I must confess
that my thoughts took that shape - anything I ever saw outside of
a theatre. It was exactly the sort of place, in fact, where,
bridged across from one side-slip to the other, on a moonlight
night, brigands would assemble to enact some dreadful tragedy.
Even the Wanguana seemed spellbound at the novel beauty of the
sight, and no one thought of moving till hunger warned us night
was setting in, and we had better look out for lodgings.
Start again, and after drinking pombe with Nango, when we heard
that three Wakungu had been seized at Kari, in consequence of the
murder, the march was commenced, but soon after stopped by the
mischievous machinations of our guide, who pretended it was too
late in the day to cross the jungles on ahead, either by the road
to the source or the palace, and therefore would not move till
the morning; then, leaving us, on the pretext of business, he
vanished, and was never seen again. A small black fly, with
thick shoulders and bullet-head, infests the place, and torments
the naked arms and legs of the people with its sharp stings to an
extent that must render life miserable to them.
After a long struggling march, plodding through huge grasses and
jungle, we reached a district which I cannot otherwise describe
than by calling it a "Church Estate." It is dedicated in some
mysterious manner to Lubari (Almighty), and although the king
appeared to have authority over some of the inhabitants of it,
yet others had apparently a sacred character, exempting them from
the civil power, and he had no right to dispose of the land
itself. In this territory there are small villages only at every
fifth mile, for there is no road, and the lands run high again,
whilst, from want of a guide, we often lost the track. It now
transpired that Budja, when he told at the palace that there was
no road down the banks of the Nile, did so in consequence of his
fear that if he sent my whole party here they would rob these
church lands, and so bring him into a scrape with the wizards or
ecclesiastical authorities. Had my party not been under control,
we could not have put up here; but on my being answerable that no
thefts should take place, the people kindly consented to provide
us with board and lodgings, and we found them very obliging. One
elderly man, half-witted - they said the king had driven his
senses from him by seizing his house and family - came at once on
hearing of our arrival, laughing and singing in a loose jaunty
maniacal manner, carrying odd sticks, shells, and a bundle of
mbugu rags, which he deposited before me, dancing and singing
again, then retreating and bringing some more, with a few
plantains from a garden, when I was to eat, as kings lived upon
flesh, and "poor Tom" wanted some, for he lived with lions and
elephants in a hovel beyond the gardens, and his belly was empty.
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