as regards my difficulties in obtaining food were, I fancy,
for the first time, made known to him. In a great fit of
indignation he said, “ I once killed a hundred. Wakungu in
a single day, and now, if they won’t feed my guests, I will
kill a hundred more; for I know the physic for bumptiousness.”
Then, sending his brothers away, he asked me to
follow him into the back part of the palace, $s he loved
me so much he must show me everything. We walked
along under the umbrella, first looking down one street
of huts, then up another, and, finally, passing the sleeping-
chamber, stopped at one adjoining it. “ That hut,” said
the king, “ is the one I sleep in; no one of my wives dare
venture within it unless I call her.” He let me feel immediately
that for the distinction conferred on me in
showing me this sacred hut a return was expected Could
I after that refuse him such a mere trifle as a compass ?
I told him he might as well put my eyes out and ask me
to walk home, as take away that little instrument, which
could be of no use to him, as he could not read or understand
it. But this only excited his cupidity; he watched
it twirling round and pointing to the north, and looked
and begged again, until, tired of his importunities, I told
him I must wait until the Usoga road was open before I
could part with it, and then the compass would be nothing
to what I would give him. Hearing this, he reared his
head proudly, and, patting his heart, said, “ That is all on
my shoulders; as sure as I five it shall be done; for that
country has no king, and , I have long been desirous of
taking it.” I declined, however, to give him the instrument
on the security of his promise, and he went to
breakfast.
I walked off to Usungu. to see what I could do for him
in his misery. I found that he had a complication of
evils entirely beyond my healing power, and among them
inveterate forms of the diseases which are generally associated
with civilisation and its social evils. I could do
nothing to cure him, but promised to do whatever was in
my power to alleviate his sufferings.
Zith.—Before breakfast I called on poor Usungu, prescribing
hot coffee to be drunk with milk every morning,
which astonished him not a little, as the negroes only use
coffee for chewing. He gave my men pomb^ and plantains.
On my return I met a page sent to invite me to
the palace. I found the king sitting with a number of
women. He was dressed in European clothes, part of
them being a pair of trousers he begged for yesterday,
that he might appear like Bana. This was his first
appearance in trousers, and his whole attire, contrasting
strangely with his native habiliments, was in his opinion
very becoming, though to me a little ridiculous; for the
legs of the trousers, as well as the sleeves of the waistcoat,
were much too short, so that his black feet and hands
stuck out at the extremities as an organ-player’s monkey’s
do, whilst the cockscomb on his head prevented a fez cap,
which was part of his special costume , for the occasion,
from sitting properly. This display over, the women
were sent away, and I was shown into a court, where a
large number of plantains were placed in a line upon the
ground for my men to take away, and we were promised
the same treat every day. From this we proceeded to
another court, where we sat in the shade together, when
the women returned again, but were all dumb, because
my interpreters dared not for their lives say anything,
even on my account, to the king’s women. Getting
tired, I took out my sketch-book and drew Lubuga, the
pet, which amused the king immensely as he recognised
her cockscomb.
Then twenty naked virgins, the daughters of Wakungu,
all smeared and shining with grease, each holding a small
square of mbugii for a fig-leaf, marched in a line before
us, as a fresh addition to the harem, whilst the happy
fathers floundered n’yanzigging on the ground, delighted