- We had a summons to attend at the Kafu palace with
the medicine-chest, a few select persons only to be present.
It
rained so much on the 8th as to stop the visit, but we went next
day. After arriving there, and going through the usual
salutations, Kamrasi asked us from what stock of people we came,
explaining his meaning by saying, "As we, Rumanika, Mtesa, and
the rest of us (enumerating the kings), are Wawitu (or princes),
Uwitu (or the country of princes) being to the east." This
interesting announcement made me quite forget to answer his
question, and induced me to say, "Omwita, indeed, as the ancient
names for Mombas, if you came from that place: I know all about
your race for two thousand years or more. Omwita, you mean, was
the last country you resided in before you came here, but
originally you came from Abyssinia, the sultan of which, our
great friend, is Sahela Selassie."
He pronounced this name laughing, and said, "Formerly our stock
was half-white and half-black, with one side of our heads covered
with straight hair, and the other side frizzly: you certainly do
know everything." The subject then turned upon medicine, and
after inspecting the chest, and inquiring into all its contents,
it ended by his begging for the half of everything. The
mosquito-curtains were again asked for, and refused until I
should leave this. As Kamrasi was anxious I should take two of
his children to England to be instructed, I agreed to do so, but
said I thought it would be better if he invited missionaries to
come here and educate all his family. His cattle were much
troubled with sickness, dying in great numbers - could I cure
them? As he again began to persecute us with begging, wanting
knives and forks, etc., I advised his using ivory as money, and
purchasing what he wanted from Gani. This brought out the
interesting fact, the truth of which we had never reached before,
that when Petherick's servant brought him one necklace of beads,
and asked after us, he gave in return fourteen ivories, thirteen
women, and seven mbugu cloths. One of his men accompanied the
visitors back to the boats, and saw Petherick, who took the ivory
and rejected the women.
10th. - At 2 p.m. we were called by Kamrasi to visit him at the
Kafu palace again, and requested to bring a lot of medicines tied
up in various coloured cloths, so that he might know what to
select for different ailments. We repaired there as before,
putting the medicines into the sextand-stand box, and found him
lying at full length on the platform of his throne, with a glass-
bead necklace of various colours, and a charm tied on his left
arm. Nobody was allowed to be present at our interview. The
medicines, four varieties, were weighed out into ten doses each,
and their uses and effects explained. He begged for four bottles
to put them in, till he was laughed out of it by our saying he
required forty bottles; for if the powders were mixed, how could
he separate them again? And to keep his mind from the begging
tack, which he was getting alarmingly near, I said, "Now I have
given you these things because you would insist on having them.
I must also tell you they are dangerous in your hands, in
consequence of your being ignorant of their properties. If you
take my advice you won't meddle with them until the two children
you wish educated have learnt the use of them in England; and if
I have to take boys from this, I hope they will be of your
family." He said, "You speak like a father to us, and we very
much approve. Here is a pot of pombe; I did not give you one
yesterday."
11th. - To-day, the king having graciously granted permission, we
went out shooting, but saw only a few buffalo tracks.
12th. - The Kamraviona was sent to inquire after our health, and
to ascertain from me all I knew respecting the origin of
Kamrasi's tribe, the distribution of countries, and the seat of
the government. I sent the king a diagram, painted in various
colours, with full explanations of everything, and asked
permission to send two more of my men in search of Bombay, who
had now been absent twenty days. The reply was, that if Bombay
did not return within four days, Kamrasi would send other men
after him on the fifth day; and, in the meantime, he sent one pot
of pombe as a token of his kind regard.
13th. - The Kamraviona was sent to inquire after our health, to
ask for medicine for himself, and to inquire more into the origin
of his race. I, on the other hand, wishing to make myself as
disagreeable as possible, in order that Kamrasi might get tired
of us, sent Frij to ask for fresh butter, eggs, tobacco, coffee,
and fowls, every day, saying, I will pay their price when I reach
Gani, for we were suffering from want of proper food. Kamrasi
was surprised at this clamour for food, and inquired what we ate
at home that we were so different from everybody else.
We heard to-day a strange story, involving the tragic fate of
Budja. On coming here, he had been bewitched by Kamrasi's
frontier officer, who put the charm into a pot of pombe. From
the moment Budja drank it he was seized with sickness, and
remained so until he reached the first station in Uganda, when he
died. The facts of the bewitchment had been found out by means
of the perpetrator's wives, who, from the moment the pombe was
drunk, took to precipitate flight, well knowing what effects
would follow, and dreading the chastisement Mtesa would bring
upon their household. We heard, too, that the deserters had
returned to the place they deserted from, with thirty Waganda,
and a present of some cows for me.
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