- When I next called on Rumanika I gave him a
Vautier's binocular and prismatic compass; on which he politely
remarked he was afraid he was robbing me of everything.
More
compliments went round, and then he asked if it was true we could
open a man's skull, look at his brains, and close it up again;
also if it was true we sailed all round the world into regions
where there was no difference between night and day, and how,
when he ploughed the seas in such enormous vessels as would carry
at once 20,000 men, we could explain to the sailors what they
ought to do; for, although he had heard of these things, no one
was able to explain them to him.
After all the explanations were given, he promised me a boat-hunt
after the nzoe in the morning; but when the time came, as
difficulties were raised, I asked him to allow us to anticipate
the arrival of Kachuchu, and march on to Kitangule. He answered,
with his usual courtesy, That he would be very glad to oblige us
in any way that we liked; but he feared that, as the Waganda were
such superstitious people, some difficulties would arise, and he
must decline to comply with our request. "You must not," he
added, "expect ever to find again a reasonable man like myself."
I then gave him a book on "Kafir laws," which he said he would
keep for my sake, with all the rest of the presents, which he was
determined never to give away, though it was usual for him to
send novelties of this sort to Mtesa, king of Uganda, and
Kamrasi, king of Unyoro, as a friendly recognition of their
superior positions in the world of great monarchies.
17th. - Rumanika next introduced me to an old woman who came from
the island of Gasi, situated in the little Luta Nzige. Both her
upper and lower incisors had been extracted, and her upper lip
perforated by a number of small holes, extending in an arch from
one corner to the other. This interesting but ugly old lady
narrated the circumstances by which she had been enslaved, and
then sent by Kamrasi as a curiosity to Rumanika, who had ever
since kept her as a servant in his palace. A man from Ruanda
then told us of the Wilyanwantu (men-eaters), who disdained all
food but human flesh; and Rumanika confirmed the statement.
Though I felt very sceptical about it, I could not help thinking
it a curious coincidence that the position they were said to
occupy agreed with Petherick's Nyam Nyams (men-eaters).
Of far more interest were the results of a conversation which I
had with another of Kamrasi's servants, a man of Amara, as it
threw some light upon certain statements made by Mr Leon of the
people of Amara being Christians. He said they bore single holes
in the centres both of their upper and lower lips, as well as in
the lobes of both of their ears, in which they wear small brass
rings.
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