Being privileged, we also enter, and take a
seat on the right-hand side, near the Katekiro,
whence we can scrutinize the monarch at our
leisure.
T h e features, smooth, polished, and without
a wrinkle, are o f a young man, who might be
o f any age between twenty-five and thirty-five.
His head is clean-shaven and covered with a fez,
his feet are bare and rest on a leopard-skin, on
the edge o f which rests a polished white tusk
o f ivo ry , and near this are a pair o f crimson
Turkish slippers. T he long fingers o f his right
hand grasp a gold-hilted Arab scimitar; the left
is extended over his left knee, reminding one of
the posture o f Rameses at Thebes. The only
natural peculiarities o f the face, causing it to
differ from other faces around me, are the glow-
ing, restless large e yes, which seem to take in
everything at a glance. T he character o f the
face, however, is seen to change rapidly; even
in repose it lacks neither dignity nor power, but
as cross thoughts flash through his mind the
corners o f the lips are drawn in, the eyes expand,
the eyeballs p ro je c t, his hands twitch nervously,
and the native courtier begins to apprehend a
volcanic outburst o f rage. If pleased, however,
the eyes appear to recede and contract, the
lips relax their vigour, and soon a hearty laugh
rings through the hall.
But hush! here advance some ten or twelve
neople along the centre, and prostrate themselves
before the Emperor, and begin through
a spokesman to tell him o f something to which,
strangely enough, he does not seem to listen
B y means o f an interpreter we are informed
that it is an embassy from the lawless bandit
M i r a m b o , who, hearing that Mtesa was like y
enough to send some 50,000 sharp spears o
hunt him up , has sent these men with propitiating
gifts, and a humble declaration that he has
no ¿ u s e o f quarrel with Uganda T h e gifts are
unroHed to view and counted. So many cloths,
so much wire, some half-dozen dinner plates o f
European make, an ample brass coffee-tray, an
Arab dagger silver-hilted, and a scarlet coat.
Mtesa has been meanwhile carelessly talking
to his chiefs while the embassy addressed him,
but suddenly he turns on the embassy his large
glowing e y e s , and speaks quickly and wit
decision • — ■
“ T e ll Mirambo from me that I do not want
his gifts, but 1 must have the head o f his man
who slew my chief Singiri a year^ a g o , as he
was returning from Zanzibar to Uganda, o
will hunt him up with more Waganda than ther
are trees in his country. G o . , . .
Another party now comes up. A C m « »
dead, and they wish to know who shall succeed
him, and th ey have brought his sons along with
them, that the Emperor may make his choice.