I Should Have Mentioned, By The Way, That
Musa Had Now Made Up His Mind Not To Go Further Than
The borders
of Usui with me, lest I should be "torn to pieces," and he would
be "held responsible on
The coast." Musa's men, however, whom he
selected for this business, were then engaged making Mussulmans
of all the Arab slave boys, and said they would not go until they
had finished, although I offered to pay the "doctor's bill," or
allowance they expected to get. The ceremony, at the same time
that it helps to extend their religion, as christening does ours,
also stamps the converts with a mark effective enough to prevent
desertion; because, after it has been performed, their own tribe
would not receive them again. At last, when they did go, Musa,
who was suffering from a sharp illness, to prove to me that he
was bent on leaving Kaze the same time as myself, began eating
what he called his training pills - small dried buds of roses with
alternate bits of sugar-candy. Ten of these buds, he said, eaten
dry, were sufficient for ordinary cases, and he gave a very
formidable description of the effect likely to follow the use of
the same number boiled in rice-water or milk.
Fearful stories of losses and distress came constantly in from
Ugogo by small bodies of men, who stole their way through the
jungles. To-day a tremendous commotion took place in Musa's tembe
amongst all the women, as one had been delivered of still-born
twins. They went about in procession, painted and adorned in the
most grotesque fashion, bewailing and screeching, singing and
dancing, throwing their arms and legs about as if they were
drunk, until the evening set in, when they gathered a huge bundle
of bulrushes, and, covering it with a cloth, carried it up to the
door of the bereaved on their shoulders, as though it had been a
coffin. Then setting it down on the ground, they planted some of
the rushes on either side of the entrance, and all kneeling
together, set to bewailing, shrieking, and howling incessantly
for hours together.
After this (10th to 12th), to my great relief, quite
unexpectedly, a man arrived from Usui conveying a present of some
ivories from a great mganga or magician, named Dr K'yengo, who
had sent them to Musa as a recollection from an old friend,
begging at the same time for some pretty cloths, as he said he
was then engaged as mtongi or caravan director, collecting
together all the native caravans desirous of making a grand march
to Uganda. This seemed to me a heaven-born opportunity of making
friends with one who could help me so materially, and I begged
Musa to seal it by sending him something on my account, as I had
nothing by me; but Musa objected, thinking it better simply to
say I was coming, and if he, K'yengo, would assist me in Usui, I
would then give him some cloths as he wanted; otherwise, Musa
said, the man who had to convey it would in all probability make
away with it, and then do his best to prevent my seeing K'yengo.
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