ing only just then returned from plundering Unyoro, had
never before seen their king in a chair, or anybody sitting,
as I was, by his side; and it being foreign to their notions,
as well as, perhaps, unpleasant to their feelings, to find a
stranger sitting higher than themselves, they complained
against this outrage to custom, and induced the king to
order my dethronement. The result was, as my iron stool
was objectionable, I stood for a moment to see that I
thoroughly understood their meaning; and then, showing
them my back, walked straightway home to make a grass
throne, and dodge them that way.
There was nothing for dinner last night, nothing again
Cowes, 290. tilis morniag> yet n 0 one would go in to
report this fact, as rain was falling, and the
king was shut up with his women. Presently the thought
struck me that the rifle, which was always infallible in
gaining me a speedy admittance at the palace, might be
of the same service now. I therefore shot a dove close to
the royal abode, and, as I expected, roused the king at
once, who sent out his pages to know what the firing was
about. When told the truth—that I had been trying to
shoot a dish of doves for breakfast, as I could get neither
meat nor drink from his kitchen—the head boy, rather
guessing than understanding what was told him, distorted
my message, and said to the king, as I could not obtain
a regular supply of food from his house, I did not wish to
accept anything further at his hands, but intended foraging
for the future in the jungles. The king, as might be
imagined, did not believe the boy’s story, and sent other
pages to ascertain the truth of the case, bidding them
listen well, and beware of what they were about. This
second lot of boys conveyed the story rightly, when the
king sent me a cow. As I afterwards heard, he cut off
the ears of the unfortunate little mischief-maker for not
making a proper use of those organs; and then, as the
lad was the son of one of his own officers, he was sent
home to have the sores healed. After breakfast the king
called me to go boating, when I used my grass throne, to
the annoyance of the attendants. This induced the king
to say before them, laughing, “ Bana, you see, is not to
be done; he is accustomed to sit before kings, and sit he
will.” Then, by way of a change,, he ordered all the drums
to embark and play upon the waters; whilst he and his
attendants paddled and steered by turns, first up the creek,
and then down nearly to the broad waters of the lake.
There was a passage this way, it was said, leading up
to Usoga, but very circuitous, on account of reefs or shoals,
and on the way the Kitiri island was passed; but no
other Kitiri was known to the Waganda, though boats
sometimes went coasting down the western side of the
lake to Uk^rdwd. The largest island on the lake is the
Sesd,* off the mouth of the Katonga river, where another
of the high priests of the Neptune of the N’yanza resides.
The king’s largest vessels are kept there, and it is famous
for its supply of mbugu barks. We next went on shore
to picnic, when a young hippopotamus, speared by harpoon,
one pig, and a pongo or bush-boc, were presented
to the king. I now advised boat-racing, which was duly
ordered, and afforded much amusement, as the whole fifty
boats formed in line, and paddled furiously to the beat of
drum to the goal which I indicated.
The day was done. In great glee the king, ever much
attached to the blackguard Maula, in consequence of his
amusing stories, appointed him to the office of seizer, or
chief kidnapper of Wakungu; observing that, after the
return of so many officers from war, much business in that
line would naturally have to be done, and there was none
so trustworthy now at court to carry out the king’s orders.
All now went to the camp; but what was my astonishment
on reaching the hut to find every servant gone, along
with the pots, pans, meat, everything; and all in eonse-
* Some say a group of forty islands compose SdsA