After Following
Down The Left Side Of The Valley And Entering The Village, The
Customary Presents And Returns Were Made.
Wishing then to obtain
a better view of the country, I strolled over the nearest hills,
and found the less exposed slopes well covered with trees.
Small
antelopes occasionally sprang up from the grass. I shot a
florikan for the pot; and as I had never before seen white
rhinoceros, killed one now; though, as no one would eat him, I
felt sorry rather than otherwise for what I had done. When I
returned in the evening, small boys brought me sparrows for sale;
and then I remembered the stories I had heard from Musa Mzuri -
that in the whole of Karague the small birds were so numerous,
the people, to save themselves from starvation were obliged to
grow a bitter corn which the birds disliked; and so I found it.
At night, whilst observing for latitude, I was struck by surprise
to see a long noisy procession pass by where I sat, led by some
men who carried on their shoulders a woman covered up in a
blackened skin. On inquiry, however, I heard she was being taken
to the hut of her espoused, where, "bundling fashion," she would
be put in bed; but it was only with virgins they took so much
trouble.
A strange but characteristic story now reached my ears. Masudi,
the merchant who took up Insangez, had been trying his best to
deter Rumanika from allowing us to enter his country, by saying
we were addicted to sorcery; and had it not been for Insangez's
remonstrances, who said we were sent up by Musa, our fate would
have been doubtful. Rumanika, it appeared, as I always had
heard, considered old Musa his saviour, for having eight years
before quelled a rebellion, when his younger brother, Rogero,
aspired to the throne; whilst Musa's honour and honesty were
quite unimpeachable. But more of this hereafter.
Khonze, the next place, lying in the bending concave of this
swamp lake, and facing Hangiro, was commanded by a fine elderly
man called Muzegi, who was chief officer during Dagara's time.
He told me with the greatest possible gravity, that he remembered
well the time when a boat could have gone from this to Vigura; as
also when fish and crocodiles came up from the Kitangule; but the
old king no sooner died than the waters dried up; which showed as
plainly as words could tell, that the king had designed it, to
make men remember him with sorrow in all future ages. Our
presents after this having been exchanged, the good old man, at
my desire, explained the position of all the surrounding
countries, in his own peculiar manner, by laying a long stick on
the ground pointing due north and south, to which he attached
shorter ones pointing to the centre of each distant country. He
thus assisted me in the protractions of the map, to the countries
which lie east and west of the route.
Shortly after starting this morning, we were summoned by the last
officer on the Urigi to take breakfast with him, as he could not
allow us to pass by without paying his respects to the king's
guests. He was a man of most affable manners, and loth we should
part company without one night's entertainment at least; but as
it was a matter of necessity, he gave us provisions to eat on the
way, adding, at the same time, he was sorry he could not give
more, as a famine was then oppressing the land. We parted with
reiterated compliments on both sides; and shortly after, diving
into the old bed of the Urigi, were constantly amused with the
variety of game which met our view. On several occasions the
rhinoceros were so numerous and impudent as to contest the right
of the road with us, and the greatest sport was occasioned by our
bold Wanguana going at them in parties of threes and fours, when,
taking good care of themselves at considerable distances, they
fired their carbines all together, and whilst the rhinoceros ran
one way, they ran the other. Whilst we were pitching our tents
after sunset by some pools on the plain, Dr K'yengo arrived with
the hongo of brass and copper wires sent by Suwarora for the
great king Mtesa, in lieu of his daughter who died; so next
morning we all marched together on to Uthenga.
Rising out of the bed of the Urigi, we passed over a low spur of
beef-sandwich clay sandstones, and descended into the close, rich
valley of Uthenga, bound in by steep hills hanging over us more
than a thousand feet high, as prettily clothed as the mountains
of Scotland; whilst in the valley there were not only magnificent
trees of extraordinary height, but also a surprising amount of
the richest cultivation, amongst which the banana may be said to
prevail. Notwithstanding this apparent richness in the land, the
Wanyambo, living in their small squalid huts, seem poor. The
tobacco they smoke is imported from the coffee-growing country of
Uhaiya. After arrival in the village, who should we see but the
Uganda officer, Irungu! The scoundrel, instead of going on to
Uganda, as he had promised to do, conveying my present to Mtesa,
had stopped here plundering the Wanyambo, and getting drunk on
their pombe, called, in their language, marwa - a delicious kind
of wine made from the banana. He, or course, begged for more
beads; but, not able to trick me again, set his drummers and
fifers at work, in hopes that he would get over our feelings in
that way.
Henceforth, as we marched, Irungu's drummers and fifers kept us
alive on the way. This we heard was a privilege that Uganda
Wakungu enjoyed both at home and abroad, although in all other
countries the sound of the drum is considered a notice of war,
unless where it happens to accompany a dance or festival.
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