A More Savage, Filthy,
Disgusting, But At The Same Time Grotesque, Scene Than That Which
Followed Cannot Be Conceived.
All fell to work armed with
swords, spears, knives, and hatchets - cutting and slashing,
thumping and bawling, fighting and tearing, tumbling and
wrestling up to their knees in filth and blood in the middle of
the carcass.
When a tempting morsel fell to the possession of
any one, a stronger neighbour would seize and bear off the prize
in triumph. All right was now a matter or pure might, and lucky
it was that it did not end in a fight between our men and the
villagers. These might be afterwards seen, one by one, covered
with blood, scampering home each with his spoil - a piece of
tripe, or liver, or lights, or whatever else it might have been
his fortune to get off with.
We were still in great want of men; but rather than stop a day,
as all delays only lead to more difficulties, I pushed on to
Magomba's palace with the assistance of some Wagogo carrying our
baggage, each taking one cloth as his hire. The chief wazir at
once come out to meet me on the way, and in an apparently affable
manner, as an old friend, begged that I would live in the palace-
-a bait which I did not take, as I knew my friend by experience a
little too well. he then, in the politest possible manner, told
me that a great dearth of food was oppressing the land - so much
so, that pretty cloths only would purchase grain. I now wished
to settle my hongo, but the great chief could not hear of such
indecent haste.
The next day, too, the chief was too drunk to listen to any one,
and I must have patience. I took out this time in the jungles
very profitably, killing a fine buck and doe antelope, of a
species unknown. These animals are much about the same size and
shape as the common Indian antelope, and, like them, roam about
in large herds. The only marked difference between the two is in
the shape of their horns, as may be seen by the woodcut; and in
their colour, in which, in both sexes, the Ugogo antelopes
resemble the picticandata gazelle of Tibet, except that the
former have dark markings on the face.
At last, after thousands of difficulties much like those I
encountered in Uzaramo, the hongo was settled by a payment of one
kisutu, one dubani, four yards bendera, four yards kiniki, and
three yards merikani. The wazir then thought he would do some
business on his own account, and commenced work by presenting me
with a pot of ghee and flour, saying at the same time "empty
words did not show true love," and hoping that I would prove mine
by making some slight return. To get rid of the animal I gave
him the full value of his present in cloth, which he no sooner
pocketed than he had the audacity to accuse Grant of sacrilege
for having shot a lizard on a holy stone, and demanded four
cloths to pay atonement for this offence against the "church."
As yet, he said, the chief was not aware of the damage done, and
it was well he was not; for he would himself, if I only paid him
the four cloths, settle matters quietly, otherwise there would be
no knowing what demands might be made on my cloth.
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