8th. Mahamed Professed To Be Delighted I Had Made Up My Mind To
Such A Scheme.
He called the heads of the villages to give me
all the information I sought for, and went with
Me to the top of
a high rock, from which we could see the hills I first viewed at
Chopi, sweeping round from south by east to north, which demarked
the line of the Asua river. The Nile at that moment was, I
believed, not very far off; yet, do or say what I would,
everybody said it was fifteen marches off, and could not be
visited under a month.[FN#25] It would be necessary for me to
take thirty-six of Mahamed's men, besides all my own, to go
there, which, he said, I was welcome to, but I should have to pay
them for their services. This was a damper at once.
I knew in my mind all these reports were false, but, rather than
be out of the way when the time came for marching, I agreed to
wait patiently, write the history of the Wahuma, and make
collections, till Mahamed was ready, trusting that I might find
some one at Gondokoro who would finish what I had left undone; or
else, after arriving there, I might go up the Nile in boats and
see for myself. The same evening I was attracted by the sound of
drums to a neighbouring village, where, by the moonlight, I found
the natives were dancing. A more indecent or savage spectacle I
never witnessed. The whole place was alive with naked humanity
in a state of constant motion. Drawing near, I found that a
number of drums were beaten by men in the centre. Next to them
was a deep ring of women, half of whom carried their babies; and
outside these again was a still deeper circle of men, some
blowing horns, but most holding their spears erect. To the sound
of the music both these rings of the opposite sexes kept jumping
and sidling round and round the drummers, making the most
grotesque and obscene motions to one another.
9th to 14th. - Nothing of material consequence happened until the
14th, when eighty of Rionga's men brought in two slaves and
thirty tusks of ivory, as a present to Mahamed. Of course, I
knew this was a bribe to induce Mahamed to fight with Rionga
against Kamrasi; but, counting that no affair of mine, I tried to
induce these men to give me some geographical information of the
countries they had just left. Not one of them would come near
me, for they knew I was friends with Kamrasi; and Mahamed's men,
when they saw mine attempting to converse with them, abused them
for "prying into other men's concerns." "These men," they said,
"are our friends, and not yours; if we choose to give them
presents of cloth and beads, and they give us a return in ivory,
what is that to you?" Mysterious Mahamed next came to me, and
begged for a blanket, as he said he was going off for a few days
to a depot where he had some ivory; and he also wanted to borrow
a musket, as one of his had been burnt.
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