Enter into any kind of conversation, nor is any foreigner
permitted to speak, whatever might be his rank, unless in presence of
the representative of the chief from whom he last came. In the wall
on each side of the entrance of the town was a large niche, in one of
which the king stood fixed and motionless, with his hands clasped
under his tobe, and supported on his bosom; and round a pole, which
had been placed erect in the other niche, a naked youth had entwined
his legs, remaining in breathless anxiety to be a spectator of the
approaching interview.
While the king remained in the above position, without moving a
single muscle, and which lasted till the Boossa messenger made his
appearance, a singing woman drew near the person of her sovereign,
and began to exercise her vocation in a tone of voice that displayed
any thing but sweetness or melody, and so loud and shrill as to
frighten away the birds from the trees near the spot.
The Boossa messenger, who had been so anxiously expected, at length
arrived, and the spell, which had bound every one to the spot was
dissolved in a moment; they were then conducted to the king, and
formally introduced to him, but the grave eccentric old man shook
hands with them, without taking them from the tobe in which they had
been enveloped, or even condescending to look in their faces, for he
never made it a practice to raise his head above a certain height,
fearing that he should discover the person to whom he might be
conversing gazing full in his countenance, to which he had a very
strange, but unconquerable antipathy; the interview lasted but a
moment, and they were hastily conducted to the house which was
occupied by the late Captain Clapperton.
