By This Time The King Was Tired; And As He Saw Me
Searching For A Log To Sit Upon, He
Made one of his pages kneel
upon all fours and sat upon his back, acting the monkey in aping
myself;
For otherwise he would have sat on a mbugu, in his
customary manner, spread on the ground. We returned, pushing
along, up one way, then another, without a word, in thorough
confusion, for the king delights in boyish tricks, which he has
learned to play successfully. Leaving the road and plunging into
thickets of tall grass, the band and Wakungu must run for their
lives, to maintain the order of march, by heading him at some
distant point of exit from the jungle; whilst the Kamraviona,
leading the pages and my men, must push head first, like a herd
of buffaloes, through the sharp-cutting grass, at a sufficient
rate to prevent the royal walk from being impeded; and the poor
women, ready to sink with exhaustion, can only be kept in their
places by fear of losing their lives.
We had been out the whole day; still he did not tire of these
tricks, and played them incessantly till near sundown, when we
entered the palace. Then the women and Wakungu separating from
us, we - that is, the king, the Kamraviona, pages, and myself - sat
down to a warm feast of sweet potatoes and plantains, ending with
pombe and fruit, whilst moist circular napkins, made in the shape
of magnificent wafers out of plantain fibre, acted at once both
the part of water and towel.
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