He Was Very
Communicative, Also, As Far As His Limited Knowledge Permitted.
He said the people are only a sub-tribe of the Madi; and the
reason why the right bank
Of the river is preferred to the left
for travelling is, that Rionga, who lives down the river, is
always on the look-out for Kamrasi's allies, with a view to kill
them. Magamba also, on being questioned, told us about Ururi, a
province of Unyoro, under the jurisdiction of Kimerziri, a noted
governor, who covers his children with bead ornaments, and throws
them into the N'yanza, to prove their identity as his own true
offspring; for should they sink, it stands to reason some other
person must be their father; but should they float, then he
recovers them. One of Kamrasi's cousins, Kaoroti, with his chief
officer, called on us, presenting five fowls as an honorarium.
He had little to say, but begged for medicine, and when given
some in a liquid state, said his sub would like some also; then
Kidgwiga's wife, who was left behind, must have some; and as
pills were given for her, the two men must have dry medicine too,
to take home with them. Severe drain as this was on the
medicine-chest, Magamba and his wife must have both wet and dry;
and even others put in a claim, but were told they were too
healthy to require physicking. Many Kidi men, dressed as in the
woodcut, crossed the river to visit Kamrasi; they could not,
however, pass us without satisfying their curiosity with a look.
Usually these men despise clothes, and never deign to put any
covering on except out of respect, when visiting Kamrasi. Their
"sou'-wester"-shaped wigs are made of other men's hair, as the
negro hair will not grow long enough. A message came from Ukero,
the governor-general of Chopi, to request we would not go down
the river in boats to-morrow, lest the Chopi ferrymen at the
falls should take fright at our strange appearance, paddle
precipitately across the river, hide their boats, and be seen no
more.
We started, leaving all the traps and men to follow, and made
this place in a stride, as a whisper warned me that Kamrasi's
officers, who are as thick as thieves about here, had made up
their minds to keep us each one day at his abode, and show us
"hospitality." Such was the case, for they all tried their powers
of persuasion, which failing, they took the alternative of making
my men all drunk, and sending to camp sundry pots of pombe. The
ground on the line of march was highly cultivated, and
intersected by a deep ravine of running water, whose sundry
branches made the surface very irregular. The sand-paper tree,
whose leaves resemble a cat's tongue in roughness, and which is
used in Uganda for polishing their clubs and spear-handles, was
conspicuous; but at the end of the journey only was there
anything of much interest to be seen. There suddenly, in a deep
ravine one hundred yards below us, the formerly placid river, up
which vessels of moderate size might steam two or three abreast,
was now changed into a turbulent torrent. Beyond lay the land of
Kidi, a forest of mimosa trees, rising gently away from the water
in soft clouds of green. This, the governor of the place, Kija,
described as a sporting-field, where elephants, hippopotami, and
buffalo are hunted by the occupants of both sides of the river.
The elephant is killed with a new kind of spear, with a double-
edged blade a yard long, and a handle which, weighted in any way
most easy, is pear-shaped.
With these instruments in their hands, some men climb into trees
and wait for the herd to pass, whilst others drive them under.
The hippopotami, however, are not hunted, but snared with lunda,
the common tripping-trap with spike-drop, which is placed in the
runs of this animal, described by every South African traveller,
and generally known as far as the Hametic language is spread. The
Karuma Falls, if such they may be called, are a mere sluice or
rush of water between high syenitic stones, falling in a long
slope down a ten-feet drop. There are others of minor
importance, and one within ear-sound, down the river, said to be
very grand.
The name given to the Karuma Falls arose from the absurd belief
that Karuma, the agent or familiar of a certain great spirit,
placed the stones that break the waters in the river, and, for so
doing, was applauded by his master, who, to reward his services
by an appropriate distinction, allowed the stones to be called
Karuma. Near this is a tree which contains a spirit whose
attributes for gratifying the powers and pleasures of either men
or women who summon its influence in the form appropriate to
each, appear to be almost identical with that of Mahadeo's Ligna
in India.
20th. - We halted for the men to collect and lay in a store of
food for the passage of the Kidi wilderness. Presents of fish,
caught in baskets, were sent us by Kija. They were not bad
eating, though all ground animals of the lowest order. At the
Grand Falls below this, Kidgwiga informs us, the king had the
heads of one hundred men, prisoners taken in war against Rionga,
cut off and thrown into the river.
21st and 22d. - The governor, who would not let us go until we saw
him, called on the 22d with a large retinue, attended by a
harpist, and bringing a present of one cow, two loads flour, and
three pots of pombe. He expected a chair to sit upon, and got a
box, as at home he has a throne only a little inferior to
Kamrasi's. He was very generous to Bombay on his former journey
to Gani; and then said he thought the white men were all flocking
this way to retake their lost country; for tradition recorded
that the Wahuma were once half-black and half-white, with half
the hair straight and the other half curly; and how was this to
be accounted for, unless the country formerly belonged to white
men with straight hair, but was subsequently taken by black men?
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