I
Was Surprised That No One Came To Prevent Her Forwardness; But
Not Till I Almost Reached Home Did Any
One appear; and then, with
great scolding, she was ordered to return - not, however, without
her begging I would call
In and see her on some future occasion,
when she would like to give me some pombe.
14th. - As conflicting reports came about Grant, the king very
courteously, at my request, forwarded letters to him. I passed
the day in distilling pombe, and the evening in calling on Mrs
Dumba, with Meri, Kahala, Lugoi, and a troop of Wanyamuezi women.
She was very agreeable; but as her husband was attending the
palace, could not give pombe, and instead gave my female escort
sundry baskets of plaintains and potatoes, signifying a dinner,
and walked half-way home, flirting with me as before.
15th - I called on the king with all the spirits I had made, as
well as the saccharine residue. We found him holding a levee,
and receiving his offerings of a batch of girls, cows, goats, and
other things of an ordinary nature. One of the goats presented
gave me an opportunity of hearing one of the strangest stories I
had yet heard in this strange country: it was a fine for
attempted regicide, which happened yesterday, when a boy, finding
the king alone, which is very unusual, walked up to him and
threatened to kill him, because, he said, he took the lives of
men unjustly. The king explained by description and pantomime
how the affair passed. When the youth attacked him he had in his
hand the revolving pistol I had given him, and showed us, holding
the pistol to his cheek, how he had presented the muzzle to the
boy, which, though it was unloaded, so frightened him that he ran
away. All the courtiers n'yanzigged vigorously for the
condescension of the king in telling the story. There must have
been some special reason why, in a court where trifling breaches
of etiquette were punished with a cruel death, so grave a crime
should have been so leniently dealt with; but I could not get at
the bottom of the affair. The culprit, a good-looking young
fellow of sixteen or seventeen, who brought in the goat, made his
n'yanzigs, stroked the goat and his own face with his hands,
n'yanzigged again with prostrations, and retired.
After this scene, officers announced the startling fact that two
white men had been seen at Kamrasi's, one with a beard like
myself, the other smooth-faced. I jumped at this news, and said,
"Of course, they are there; do let me send a letter to them." I
believed it to be Petherick and a companion whom I knew he was to
bring with him. The king, however, damped my ardour by saying
the information was not perfect, and we must wait until certain
Wakungu, whom he sent to search in Unyoro, returned.
16th. - The regions about the palace were all in a state of
commotion to-day, men and women running for their lives in all
directions, followed by Wakungu and their retainers.
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