were presented as usual, when by torchlight we were dismissed,
my men taking with them as many plantains as
they could carry.
I stayed at home all this day, because the king
and queen had set it apart for looking at and arranging
their horns—mapembe, or fetishes, as the learned call
such things—to see that there are no imperfections in the
Uganga. This was something like an inquiry into the
ecclesiastical condition of the country, while, at the same
time, it was a religious ceremony, and, as such, was appropriate
to the first day after the new moon appears. This
being the third moon by account, in pursuance of ancient
custom, all the people about court, including the king,
shaved their heads—the king, however, retaining his
cockscomb, the pages their double cockades, and the
other officers their single cockades on the back of the
head, or either side, according to the official rank of each.
My men were occupied making trousers for the king all
day; whilst the pages, and those sent to learn the art of
tailoring, instead of doing their duty, kept continually
begging for something to present to the king.
2d. The queen now taking a sporting fit into her head,
sent for me early in the morning, with all my men, armed,
to shoot a crested crane in her palace; but though we
were there as required, we were kept waiting till late in
the afternoon, when, instead of talking about shooting, as
her Wakungii had forbidden her doing it, she asked after
her two daughters—whether they had run away, or if
they liked their new abode ? I replied I was sorry circumstances
did not permit of my coming to thank her
sooner, for I felt grateful beyond measure to her for
having charmed my house with such beautiful society.
I did not follow her advice to chain either of them with
iron, for I found cords of love, the only instrument white
men know the use of, quite strong enough. Fascinated
with this speech, she said she would give me another of a
middle age between the two, expecting, as I thought, that
f she would thus induce me to visit her more frequently
than I did her son; but, though I thanked her, it frightened
me from visiting her for ages after.
She then said, with glowing pride, casting a sneer on
the king’s hospitality, “ In the days of yore, Sunna, when-
: ever visitors came to see him, immediately presented
them with women, and, secondly, with food; for he was
very particular in looking after his guests’ welfare, which is
not exactly what you find the case now, I presume.” The
rest of the business of the day consisted in applications
for medicine and medical treatment, which it was difficult
satisfactorily to meet.
3d.—To-day Katumba, the king’s head page, was sent
to me with deoles to be made into trousers and waistcoats,
and a large sixty-dollar silk I had given him to
cover the chair with. The king likes rich colours, and I
was solemnly informed that he will never wear anything
but clothes like Bana.
4 th.—By invitation I went to the palace at noon, with
guns, and found the king holding a levee, the first since
the new moon, with all heads shaved in the manner I have
mentioned. Soon rising, he showed, the way through the
palace to a pond, which is described as his bathing
N’yanza, his women attending, and pages leading the
way with his guns. From this we passed on to a jungle
lying between the palace hill and another situated at the
northern end of the lake, where wild buffaloes frequently
lie concealed in the huge papyrus rushes of a miry drain;
but as none could be seen at that moment, we returned
again to the palace. He showed me large mounds of
earth, in the shape of cocked hats, which are private
observatories, from which the surrounding country can
be seen. By the side of these observatories are huts,
smaller than the ordinary ones used for residing in, where
the king, after the exertion of “ looking out,” takes his