hut, inspected that, and finally went to the place where
the bottle had been kept. There he walked about the
grass with his arm up, and jingling the bell to his ear,
first on one side, then on the other, till the track of a
hyena gave him the clue, and in two or three more steps
he found it. A hyena had carried it into the grass and
dropped it. Bravo, for the infallible horn ! and well done
the king for his honesty in sending i t ! So I gave the
king the bottle and gauge, which delighted him amazingly
; and the old doctor, who begged for pombd, got a
goat for his trouble. My men now, recollecting the powder
robbery at Uganda, said king Mt&sa would not send
his horn when I asked for it, because he was the culprit
himself.
6 th.— Kidgwiga told us to-day that king Kamrasi’s
sisters are not allowed to wed; they live and die virgins
in his palace. Their only occupation in life consisted in
drinking milk, of which each one consumes the produce
daily of from ten to twenty cows, and hence they become
so inordinately fat that they cannot walk. Should they
wish to see a relative, or go outside the hut for any purpose,
it requires eight men to lift any of them on a litter.
The brothers, too, are not allowed to go out of his reach.
This confinement of the palace family is considered a
state necessity, as a preventive to civil wars, in the
same way as the destruction of the Uganda princes, after
a certain season, is thought necessary for the preservation
of peace there.
I th y—In the morning the Kamraviona called, on the
king’s behalf, to inquire after my health, and also to make
some important Communications. First he was to request
a supply of bullets, that the king might fire a salute when
Bombay returned from Gani; next, to ask for s t.imn1a.t iv e
medicine, now that he had consumed all I gave him, and
gone through the preliminary course; farther, to request
I would spread a charm over all his subjects, so that their
hearts might be inclined towards him, and they would
come without calling and bow down at his feet; finally,
he wished me to exchange my blood with him, that we
might be brothers till death. I sent the bullets, advised
liim to wait a day or two for the medicine, and said there
was only one charm by which he could gain the influence
he required over his subjects—this was, knowledge and
the power of the pen. Should he desire some of my
children (meaning missionaries) to come here and instruct
his, the thing would be done; but not in one year, nor
even ten, for it takes many years to educate children.
As to exchanging my blood with a black man’s, it was
a thing quite beyond my comprehension; though Rii-
manika, I must confess, had asked me to do the same
thing. The way the English make lasting friendships is
done either by the expressions of their hearts, or by the
exchange of some trifles, as keepsakes; and now, as I had
given Kamrasi some specimens of English manufacture,
he might give me a horn, or anything else he chose, which
I could show to my friends, so as to keep him in recollection
all my life.
The Kamraviona, before leaving, said, for our information,
that a robbery had occurred in the palace last night;
for this morning, when Kamrasi went to inspect his
Mzungu (the block-tin box), which he had forgotten to
lock, he found all his beads had been stolen. After sniffing
round among the various wives, he smelt the biggest
one to be the culprit, and turned, the beads out of her
possession. Deputies came in the evening with a pot of
pomb£ and small screw of butter, to tell me some Gani
people had just arrived, bringing information that the
vessel at Gani had left to go down the river; but when
intelligence reached the vessel of the approach of my
men they turned and came back again. Bombay was well
feasted on the road by Kamrasi’s people, receiving eight
cows from one and two cows from another.