All this was very good; but, on the day of our departure,
having already received and expressed satisfaction
with the presents from Speke, be showed bis
true character by demanding a separate present from
me. He so far forgot himself as to seize two cases of
ammunition and a gun, and drove my porters out of
the village with his stick. Poor old man ! some cloth
and beads sent the following day softened his anger,
and my effects were allowed to leave his dominions.
He was much respected in the country, and most of
the neighbouring sultans visited him with great formality.
On these occasions my guns were asked for
to fire salutes. The procession would be headed by
spearsmen, then followed the lady visitors carrying
gourds of pombd, drums beating furiously, shots, sham-
fights, &c.; and the sultan would ask me to join in
the dance. After a time I was called upon by the
strangers, and every book, box, blanket, &c., was
minutely scrutinised by them.
On the morning of the 8th June, my journal remarks
:—“ a .m ., One shot knocked over two guinea-fowl
—a blessing—nothing to e a t; people pleased at seeing
them. No fever. Sultan still here : whole village ,at
pombe ; had a potful sent me, but cat turned it over.
Bombay and Behan asleep all day. Called for dinner
at usual hour, fire black o u t; asked for the roast-fowl
of the morning—Behan had eaten it. Took all this
philosophically, and got two fellows to prepare a
guinea-fowl by 7-J p .m . Not many drunken men
about—all asleep.” A batch of tall Watusi men paid
me visits; my umbrella was much fancied by their
chief. He offered me his pipe for i t ; and, finding this
was not enough, he brought me another day an iron
hoe I To get rid of the subject, I asked him to sell me
his forefinger, and said that twenty cows wouldn’t buy
my umbrella, which at last made him understand my
meaning, as they value everything by cattle. The
natives had great faith in the “ Wazoongoo,” white
men. Our very paper, which they called “ pupolo,”
was considered by some to have virtues; but we hadn’t
much of it to give, having had no communication with
England for nearly a year.
The custom of the Arab in this country is to take
presents for everything he does, and the same idea was
formed of us. For instance, if a gun had to be repaired,
a bullet to be extracted, an old sultan to be
cured of dimness of vision, or the split lobe of an ear
to be mended, for any of these services a cow or cows
were at hand to be paid when the task was finished.
When slaves were brought us for sale and declined,
they could not understand our indifference to such
traffic, but would turn from us with a significant shrug,
as much as to say, “Why are you here, then?”
Every morning the sultana and myself met, cordially
shaking hands and asking how the night had been
passed; previously to this her grandchildren had been
in to her bedside, bidding good-morning. Every respect
was paid the old lady by her family and by the
lower classes, who stooped, knelt, or twice clapped
their hands as they met her. She was active like her
husband, an excellent housewife, gave herself no airs,
but still maintained her dignity. She might be seen
nursing an infant, kindly carrying it about on her
back, or at times shouldering a log of firewood. If I
had refused pombe from her husband and son, she
would bring me a cupful, put it to her lips, and with