For Her Kind Condescension In Assuming Plain
Raiment, Everybody, Of Course, N'yanzigged.
Next she ordered her
slave girls to bring a large number of sambo (anklets), and
begged me to select the best, for she liked me much.
In vain I
tried to refuse them: she had given more than enough for a
keepsake before, and I was not hungry for property; still I had
to choose some, or I would give offence. She then gave me a
basket of tobacco, and a nest of hen eggs for her "son's"
breakfast. When this was over, the Mukonderi, another dancing-
tune, with instruments something like clarionets, was ordered;
but it had scarcely been struck up, before a drenching rain, with
strong wind, set in and spoilt the music, though not the playing-
-for none dared stop without an order; and the queen, instead of
taking pity, laughed most boisterously over the exercise of her
savage power as the unfortunate musicians were nearly beaten down
by the violence of the weather.
When the rain ceased, her majesty retired a second time to her
toilet-hut, and changed her dress for a puce-coloured wrapper,
when I, ashamed of having robbed her of so many sambo, asked her
if she would allow me to present her with a little English "wool"
to hang up instead of her mbugu curtain on cold days like this.
Of course she could not decline, and a large double scarlet
blanket was placed before her. "Oh, wonder of wonders!"
exclaimed all the spectators, holding their mouths in both hands
at a time - such a "pattern" had never been seen here before.
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