CH A P TER HI.
The war-drum beaten— The wizards play their part— In full warpaint—
Bullets against spears— The Wavuma baulked—
Mtesa’s fury— Victory or the stake!— Hard fighting— The
captive chief: a struggle between the Pagan and the
Christian— A floating mystery— “ Return, O spirit! the war
is ended!” — The camp on fire: a race for life.
(September 14—October 18, 1875.)
On the 14th September the Emperor o f Uganda
decided to give battle to the Wavuma, who
were daily becoming bolder and more boastful.
In the morning, in accordance with Mtesa’s
orders, forty Waganda canoes sallied out from
the beach in front o f our camps to Nakaranga
Point, where they formed in line o f battle before
the causeway, with the sterns o f their canoes
fronting Ingira, and their bows towards Nakaranga
Point.
Mtesa was followed b y about three-fourths
o f his army when he proceeded to the point
to view the battle, and with him went the great
war-drums, to the number o f fifty or thereabouts,
and fifes about a hundred, and a great number
o f men shaking gourds filled with pebbles, and
rSept. 14. i8751 THE w i z a r d s p l a y THEIR PART. 113
[ Nakaranga. J
the court criers and mad charmers against evil
were not wanting to create din and noise, and
celebrate victory.
A hut o f ample size had been erected on the
mountain slope overlooking the strait, into which
Mtesa and his favourite women retired. When
the Emperor was seated, the “ prophets o f Baal,
or the priests and priestesses o f the Muzimu, or
witchcraft, came up, more than a hundred in
number, and offered the charms to Mtesa one
after another in a most tedious ceremonious
way, and to all o f them Mtesa condescended
to point his imperial forefinger.
The chief priest was a most fantastically dressed
madman. It is customary before commencing a
battle to carry all the potent medicines or charms
of Uganda (thus propitiating the dreadful Muzimu
or evil spirits) to the monarch, that he may
touch or point his forefinger at them. T h e y
consist o f dead lizards, bits o f wood, hide, nails
of dead people, claws o f animals, and beaks o f
birds, a hideous miscellany, with mysterious
compounds o f herbs and leaves carefully enclosed
in vessels ornamented with varicoloured beads.
During the battle these wizards and witches
chant their incantations, and exhibit their medicines
on high before the foe, while the gourd-
and-pebble bearers sound a hideous alarum,
enough to cause the nerves o f any man except
an African to relax at once.
THROUGH THE , DARK CONTINENT. VOL. II. I