I Proposed Frightening Them Out With
Stones, But No Stone Could Reach So High; So, To Cut The Matter
Short, I Killed An Adjutant On The Nest, And, As The Vultures
Flew Away, Brought One Down On The Wing, Which Fell In A Garden
Enclosure.
The Waganda were for a minute all spell-bound with astonishment,
when the king jumped frantically in the air, clapping his hands
above his head, and singing out, "Woh, woh, woh!
What wonders!
Oh, Bana, Bana! what miracles he performs!" - and all the Wakungu
followed in chorus. "Now load, Bana - load, and let us see you do
it," cried the excited king; but before I was half loaded, he
said, "Come along, come along, and let us see the bird." Then
directing the officers which way to go - for, by the etiquette of
the court of Uganda, every one must precede the king - he sent
them through a court where his women, afraid of the gun, had been
concealed. Here the rush onward was stopped by newly made fences,
but the king roared to the officers to knock them down. This was
no sooner said than done, by the attendants in a body shoving on
and trampling them under, as an elephant would crush small trees
to keep his course. So pushing, floundering through plaintain and
shrub, pell-mell one upon the other, that the king's pace might
not be checked, or any one come in for a royal kick or blow, they
came upon the prostrate bird. "Woh, woh, woh!" cried the king
again, "there he is, sure enough; come here, women - come and look
what wonders!" And all the women, in the highest excitement,
"woh-wohed" as loud as any of the men. But that was not enough.
"Come along, Bana," said the king, "we must have some more
sport;" and, saying this he directed the way towards the queen's
palace, the attendants leading, followed by the pages, then the
king, next myself - for I never would walk before him - and finally
the women, some forty or fifty, who constantly attended him.
To make the most of the king's good-humour, while I wanted to
screen myself from the blazing sun, I asked him if he would like
to enjoy the pleasures of an umbrella; and before he had time to
answer, held mine over him as we walked side by side. The
Wakungu were astonished, and the women prattled in great delight;
whilst the king, hardly able to control himself, sidled and spoke
to his flatterers as if he were doubly created monarch of all he
surveyed. He then, growing more familiar, said, "Now, Bana, do
tell me - did you not shoot that bird with something more than
common ammunition? I am sure you did, now; there was magic in
it." And all I said to the contrary would not convince him. "But
we will see again." "At buffaloes?" I said. "No, the buffaloes
are too far off now; we will wait to go after then until I have
given you a hut close by." Presently, as some herons were flying
overhead, he said, "Now, shoot, shoot!" and I brought a couple
down right and left.
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