A Large Cleared Space Divided The Queen's
Residence From Her Kamraviona's. The Outer Enclosures And Courts
Were Fenced With Tiger-
Grass; and the huts, though neither so
numerous nor so large, were constructed after the same fashion as
the king's.
Guards also kept the doors, on which large bells
were hung to give alarm, and officers in waiting watched the
throne-rooms. All the huts were full of women, save those kept
as waiting-rooms; where drums and harmonicons were played for
amusement. On first entering, I was required to sit in a
waiting-hut till my arrival was announced; but that did not take
long, as the queen was prepared to receive me; and being of a
more affable disposition than her son, she held rather a levee of
amusement than a stiff court of show. I entered the throne-hut
as the gate of that court was thrown open, with my hat off, but
umbrella held over my head, and walked straight towards her till
ordered to sit upon my bundle of grass.
Her majesty - fat, fair, and forty-five - was sitting, plainly
garbed in mbugu, upon a carpet spread upon the ground within a
curtain of mbugu, her elbow resting on a pillow of the same bark
material; the only ornaments on her person being an abrus
necklace, and a piece of mbugu tied round her head, whilst a
folding looking-glass, much the worse for wear, stood open by her
side. An iron rod like a spit, with a cup on the top, charged
with magic powder, and other magic wands, were placed before the
entrance; and within the room, four Mabandwa sorceresses or
devil-drivers, fantastically dressed, as before described, and a
mass of other women, formed the company. For a short while we sat
at a distance, exchanging inquiring glances at one another, when
the women were dismissed, and a band of music, with a court full
of Wakungu, was ordered in to change the scene. I also got orders
to draw near and sit fronting her within the hut. Pombe, the best
in Uganda, was then drunk by the queen, and handed to me and to
all the high officers about her, when she smoked her pipe, and
bade me smoke mine. The musicians, dressed in long-haired Usoga
goat-skins, were now ordered to strike up, which they did, with
their bodies swaying or dancing like bears in a fair. Different
drums were then beat, and I was asked if I could distinguish
their different tones.
The queen, full of mirth, now suddenly rose, leaving me sitting,
whilst she went to another hut, changed her mbugu for a deole,
and came back again for us to admire her, which was no sooner
done to her heart's content, than a second time, by her order,
the court was cleared, and, when only three or four confidential
Wakungu were left, she took up a small faggot of well-trimmed
sticks, and, selecting three, told me she had three complains.
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