One Of The Queen's Sisters, Hearing Of Kari's Murder, Came On A
Visit To Condole With Us, Bringing A Pot Of Pombe, For Which She
Received Some Beads.
On being asked how many sisters the queen
had, for we could not help suspecting some imposition, she
replied
She was the only one, till assured ten other ladies had
presented themselves as the queen's sisters before, when she
changed her tone, and said, "That is true, I am not the only one;
but if I had told you the truth I might have lost my head." This
was a significant expression of the danger to telling court
secrets.
I suspected that there must be a considerable quantity of game in
this district, as stake-nets and other traps were found in all
the huts, as well as numbers of small antelope hoofs spitted on
pipe-sticks - an ornament which is counted the special badge of
the sportsman in this part of Africa. Despite, therefore, of the
warnings of Budja, I strolled again with my rifle, and saw
pallah, small plovers, and green antelopes with straight horns,
called mpeo, the skin of which makes a favourite apron for the
Mabandwa.
14th. - I met to-day a Mhuma cowherd in my strolls with the rifle,
and asked him if he knew where the game lay. The unmannerly
creature, standing among a thousand of the sleekest cattle,
gruffishly replied, "What can I know of any other animals than
cows?" and went on with his work, as if nothing in the world
could interest him but his cattle-tending. I shot a doe,
leucotis, called here nsunnu, the first one seen upon the
journey.
15th. - In the morning, when our men went for water to the
springs, some Waganda in ambush threw a spear at them, and this
time caught a Tartar, for the "horns," as they called their guns,
were loaded, and two of them received shot-wounds. In the
evening, whilst we were returning from shooting, a party of
Waganda, also lying in the bush, called out to know what we were
about; saying, "Is it not enough that you have turned us out of
our homes and plantations, leaving us to live like animals in the
wilderness?" and when told we were only searching for sport,
would not believe that our motive was any other than hostility to
themselves.
At night one of Budja's men returned from the palace, to say the
king was highly pleased with the measures adopted by his Wakungu,
in prosecution of Kari's affair. He hoped now as we had cows to
eat, there would be no necessity for wandering for food, but all
would keep together "in one garden." At present no notice would
be taken of the murderers, as all the culprits would have fled
far away in their fright to escape chastisement. But when a
little time had elapsed, and all would appear to have been
forgotten, officers would be sent and the miscreants apprehended,
for it was impossible to suppose anybody could be ignorant of the
white men being the guests of the king, considering they had
lived at the palace for so long.
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