I Said,
If He Did Not, I Should Go Off; And So The Conversation Ended.
26th. - Drumming, singing, screaming, yelling, and dancing had
been going on these last two days and two nights to drive the
Phepo or devil out of a village.
The whole of the ceremonies
were most ludicrous. An old man and woman, smeared with white
mud, and holding pots of pombe in their laps, sat in front of a
hut, whilst other people kept constantly bringing them baskets
full of plantain-squash, and more pots of pombe. In the
courtyard fronting them, were hundreds of men and women dressed
in smart mbugus - the males wearing for turbans, strings of
abrus-seeds wound round their heads, with polished boars' tusks
stuck in in a jaunty manner. These were the people who, drunk as
fifers, were keeping up such a continual row to frighten the
devil away. In the midst of this assembly I now found Kachuchu,
Rumanika's representative, who went on ahead from Karague palace
to tell Mtesa that I wished to see him. With him, he said, were
two other Wakungu of Mtesa's, who had orders to bring on my party
and Dr K'yengo's. Mtesa, he said, was so mad to see us, that the
instant he arrived at the palace and told him we wished to visit
him, the king caused "fifty big men and four hundred small ones"
to be executed, because, he said, his subjects were so bumptious
they would not allow any visitors to come near him, else he would
have had white men before.
27th. - N'yamgundu, my old friend at Usui, then came to me, and
said he was the first man to tell Mtesa of our arrival in Usui,
and wish to visit him. The handkerchief I had given Irungu at
Usui to present as a letter to Mtesa he had snatched away from
him, and given, himself, to his king, who no sooner received it
than he bound it round his head, and said, in ecstasies of
delight, "Oh, the Mzungu, the Mzungu! he does indeed want to see
me." Then giving him four cows as a return letter to take to me,
he said, "Hurry off as quickly as possible and bring him here."
"The cows," said N'yamgundu, "have gone on to Kisuere by another
route, but I will bring them here; and then, as Maula is taking
you, I will go and fetch Grant." I then told him not to be in
such a hurry. I had turned off Maula for treating me like a dog,
and I would not be escorted by him again. He replied that his
orders would not be fully accomplished as long as any part of my
establishment was behind; so he would, if I wished it, leave part
of his "children" to guide me on to Mtesa's, whilst he went to
fetch Grant. An officer, I assured him, had just gone on to fetch
Grant, so he need not trouble his head on that score; at any
rate, he might reverse his plan, and send his children for Grant,
whilst he went on with me, by which means he would fully
accomplish his mission.
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