He Seemed To Comprehend It
Immediately, And Assembled The Desired Wakungu; But, To My
Mortification, He Kept All The Conversation To Himself, Waganda
Fashion; Spoke A Lot Of Nonsense; And Then Asked His Men What
They Thought Had Better Be Done.
The sages replied, "Oh, make
friends, and do the matter gently." But the king proudly raised
his head, laughed them to scorn, and said, "Make friends with men
who have crossed their spears with us already!
Nonsense! they
would only laugh at us; the Uganda spear alone shall do it."
Hearing this bravado, the Kamraviona, the pages, and the elders,
all rose to a man, with their sticks, and came charging at their
king, swearing they would carry out his wished with their lives.
The meeting now broke up in the usual unsatisfactory, unfinished
manner, by the king rising and walking away, whilst I returned
with the Kamraviona, who begged for ten more blue eggs in
addition to my present to make a full necklace, and told my men
to call upon him in the morning, when he would give me anything I
wished to eat. Bombay was then ordered to describe what sort of
food I lived on usually; when, Mganda fashion, he broke a stick
into ten bits, each representing a differing article, and said,
"Bana eat mixed food always"; and explained that stick No. 1
represented beef; No. 2, mutton; No. 3, fowl; No. 4, eggs; No. 5,
fish; No. 6, potatoes; No. 7, plantains; No.
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