Part 25 (1/2)
2d.--The king sent me a pot of pombe to-day, inquiring after my health, and saying he would like to take the medicine I gave him if I would send Frij over to administer it, but he would be ashamed to swallow pills before me. Hitherto he had not been able to take the medicine from press of business in collecting an army to fight his brothers; but as his troops would all leave for war to-day, he expected to have leisure.
In plying the Kamraviona to try if we could get rid of the annoying restraints which made our residence here a sort of imprisonment, I discovered that the whole affair was not one of blunder or accident, but that we actually were prisoners thus by design. It appeared that Kamrasi's brothers, when they heard we were coming into Unyoro, murmured, and said to the king, ”Why are you bringing such guests amongst us, who will practise all kinds of diabolical sorcery, and bring evil on us?” To which Kamrasi replied, ”I have invited them to come, and they shall come; and if they bring evil with them, let that all fall on my shoulders, for you shall not see them.” He then built a palaver-house on the banks of the Kafu to receive us in privately; and when we were to go to Gani, it was his intention to slip us off privately down the Kafu.
The brothers were so thoroughly frightened, that when Kamrasi opened his chronometer before them to show them the works in motion, they turned their heads away. The large block-tin box I gave Kamrasi, as part of his hongo, was, I heard, called Mzungu, or the white man, by him.
In the evening the beads recently brought from Gani were sent for my inspection, with an intimation that Kamrasi highly approved of them, and would like me to give him a few like them. Some of Kamrasi's spies, whom he had sent to the refractory allies of Rionga his brother, returned bringing a spear and some gra.s.s from the thatch of the hut of a Chopi chief. The removal of the gra.s.s was a piece of state policy. It was stolen by Kamrasi's orders, in order that he might spread a charm on the Chopi people, and gain such an influence over them that their spears could not prevail against the Wanyoro; but it was thought we might possess some still superior magic powder, as we had come from such a long distance, and Kamrasi would prefer to have ours. These Chopi people were leagued with the brothers, and thus kept the highroad to Gani, though the other half of Chopi remained loyal; and though Kamrasi continually sent armies against the refractory half which aided his brothers, they never retaliated by attacking this place.
We found, by the way, that certain drumming and harmonious accompaniments which we had been accustomed to hear all day and night were to continue for four moons, in celebration of twins born to Kamrasi since we came here.
3d.--Kamrasi's political department was active again to-day. Some Gani officials arrived to inform him that there were two white men in the vessel spoken of as at Gani; a second vessel was coming in there, and several others were on their way. A carnelian was shown me which the Gani people gave to Kamrasi many years ago. Kamrasi expressed a wish that I would exchange magic powders with him. He had a very large variety, and would load a horn for me with all those I desired most. He wanted also medicines for longevity and perpetual strength. Those I had given him had, he said, deprived him of strength, and he felt much reduced by their effects. He would like me to go with him and attack the island his three brothers, Rionga, Wahitu, and Pohuka, are in possession of. When I said I never fought with black men, he wished to know if I would not shoot them if they attacked me. My replay was, alluding to our fight in the river, ”How did N'yamyonjo's men fare?” I found that Kamrasi had thirty brothers and as many sisters.
4th.--I gave Kamrasi a bottle of quinine, which we call ”strong back,”
and asked him in return for a horn containing all the powders necessary to give me the gift of tongues, so that I should be able to converse with any black men whom I might meet with. We heard that Kamrasi has called all his Gani guests to play before him, and a double shot from his Blissett rifle announced to our ears that he in turn was amusing them. This was the first time the gun had been discharged since he received it, and, fearing to fire it himself, he called one of my men to do it for him.
5th.--At 9 a.m., the time for measuring the fall of rain for the last twenty-four hours, we found the rain-gauge and the bottle had been removed, so we sent Kidgwiga to inform the king we wished his magicians to come at once and inst.i.tute a search for it. Kidgwiga immediately returned with the necessary adept, an old man, nearly blind, dressed in strips of old leather fastened to the waist, and carrying in one hand a cow's horn primed with magic powder, carefully covered on the mouth with leather, from which dangled an iron bell. The old creature jingled the bell, entered our hut, squatted on his hams, looked first at one, then at the other--inquired what the missing things were like, grunted, moved his skinny arm round his head, as if desirous of catching air from all four sides of the hut, then dashed the acc.u.mulated air on the head of his horn, smelt it to see if all was going right, jingled the bell again close to his ear, and grunted his satisfaction; the missing articles must be found.
To carry out the incantation more effectually, however, all my men were sent for to sit in the open before the hut, when the old doctor rose, shaking the horn and tinkling the bell close to his ear. He then, confronting one of the men, dashed the horn forward as if intending to strike him on the face, then smelt the head, then dashed at another, and so on, till he became satisfied that my men were not the thieves.
He then walked into Grant's hut, inspected that, and finally went to the place where the bottle had been kept. There he walked about the gra.s.s 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 gra.s.s and dropped it. Bravo, for the infallible horn! and well done the king for his honesty in sending it! So I gave the king the bottle and gauge, which delighted him amazingly; and the old doctor who begged for pombe, got a goat for his trouble. My men now, recollecting the powder robbery at Uganda, said king Mtesa would not send his horn when I asked for it, because he was the culprit himself.
6th.--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 of 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.
7th.--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 stimulative medicine, now that he had consumed all I gave him, and gone through the preliminary course; further, 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 him 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 by blood with a black man's, it was a thing quite beyond my comprehension; though Rumanika, I must confess, had asked me to do the same thing. The way the English make lasting friends.h.i.+ps 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 pombe and small screw of b.u.t.ter, 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.
8th and 9th.--We had a summons to attend at the Kafu palace with the medicine-chest, a few select persons only to be present. It rained so much on the 8th as to stop the visit, but we went next day. After arriving there, and going through the usual salutations, Kamrasi asked us from what stock of people we came, explaining his meaning by saying, ”As we, Rumanika, Mtesa, and the rest of us (enumerating the kings), are Wawitu (or princes), Uwitu (or the country of princes) being to the east.” This interesting announcement made me quite forget to answer his question, and induced me to say, ”Omwita, indeed, as the ancient names for Mombas, if you came from that place: I know all about your race for two thousand years or more. Omwita, you mean, was the last country you resided in before you came here, but originally you came from Abyssinia, the sultan of which, our great friend, is Sahela Sela.s.sie.”
He p.r.o.nounced this name laughing, and said, ”Formerly our stock was half-white and half-black, with one side of our heads covered with straight hair, and the other side frizzly: you certainly do know everything.” The subject then turned upon medicine, and after inspecting the chest, and inquiring into all its contents, it ended by his begging for the half of everything. The mosquito-curtains were again asked for, and refused until I should leave this. As Kamrasi was anxious I should take two of his children to England to be instructed, I agreed to do so, but said I thought it would be better if he invited missionaries to come here and educate all his family. His cattle were much troubled with sickness, dying in great numbers--could I cure them? As he again began to persecute us with begging, wanting knives and forks, etc., I advised his using ivory as money, and purchasing what he wanted from Gani.
This brought out the interesting fact, the truth of which we had never reached before, that when Petherick's servant brought him one necklace of beads, and asked after us, he gave in return fourteen ivories, thirteen women, and seven mbugu cloths. One of his men accompanied the visitors back to the boats, and saw Petherick, who took the ivory and rejected the women.
10th.--At 2 p.m. we were called by Kamrasi to visit him at the Kafu palace again, and requested to bring a lot of medicines tied up in various coloured cloths, so that he might know what to select for different ailments. We repaired there as before, putting the medicines into the s.e.xtand-stand box, and found him lying at full length on the platform of his throne, with a gla.s.s-bead necklace of various colours, and a charm tied on his left arm. n.o.body was allowed to be present at our interview. The medicines, four varieties, were weighed out into ten doses each, and their uses and effects explained. He begged for four bottles to put them in, till he was laughed out of it by our saying he required forty bottles; for if the powders were mixed, how could he separate them again? And to keep his mind from the begging tack, which he was getting alarmingly near, I said, ”Now I have given you these things because you would insist on having them. I must also tell you they are dangerous in your hands, in consequence of your being ignorant of their properties. If you take my advice you won't meddle with them until the two children you wish educated have learnt the use of them in England; and if I have to take boys from this, I hope they will be of your family.” He said, ”You speak like a father to us, and we very much approve. Here is a pot of pombe; I did not give you one yesterday.”
11th.--To-day, the king having graciously granted permission, we went out shooting, but saw only a few buffalo tracks.
12th.--The Kamraviona was sent to inquire after our health, and to ascertain from me all I knew respecting the origin of Kamrasi's tribe, the distribution of countries, and the seat of the government. I sent the king a diagram, painted in various colours, with full explanations of everything, and asked permission to send two more of my men in search of Bombay, who had now been absent twenty days. The reply was, that if Bombay did not return within four days, Kamrasi would send other men after him on the fifth day; and, in the meantime, he sent one pot of pombe as a token of his kind regard.
13th.--The Kamraviona was sent to inquire after our health, to ask for medicine for himself, and to inquire more into the origin of his race. I, on the other hand, wis.h.i.+ng to make myself as disagreeable as possible, in order that Kamrasi might get tired of us, sent Frij to ask for fresh b.u.t.ter, eggs, tobacco, coffee, and fowls, every day, saying, I will pay their price when I reach Gani, for we were suffering from want of proper food. Kamrasi was surprised at this clamour for food, and inquired what we ate at home that we were so different from everybody else.
We heard to-day a strange story, involving the tragic fate of Budja. On coming here, he had been bewitched by Kamrasi's frontier officer, who put the charm into a pot of pombe. From the moment Budja drank it he was seized with sickness, and remained so until he reached the first station in Uganda, when he died. The facts of the bewitchment had been found out by means of the perpetrator's wives, who, from the moment the pombe was drunk, took to precipitate flight, well knowing what effects would follow, and dreading the chastis.e.m.e.nt Mtesa would bring upon their household. We heard, too, that the deserters had returned to the place they deserted from, with thirty Waganda, and a present of some cows for me.
14th.---Kamrasi sent me four parcels of coffee, very neatly enclosed in rush pith.
15th.--Getting more impatient, and desirous to move on at any sacrifice, I proposed giving up all claims to my muskets, as well as the present of cows from Mtesa, if Kamrasi would give us boats to Gani at once; but the reply was simply, Why be in such a hurry?
16th.--The Kamraviona was sent to us with a load of coffee, which Kamrasi had purchased with cowries, and to inquire how we had slept.
Very badly, was the reply, because we knew Bombay would have been back long ago if Kamrasi was not concealing him somewhere, and we did not know what he was doing with deserters and Waganda. Kamrasi then wanted us to paint his mbugu cloths in different patterns and colours; but we sent him instead six packages of red-ink powder, and got abused for sauciness. He then wanted black ink, else how could he put on the red with taste; but we had none to give him. Next, he asked leave for my men to shoot cows, before his Kidi visitors, which they did to his satisfaction, instructing him at the same time to fire powder with his own rifle; when, triumphant with his success, he protested he would never use anything but guns again, and threw away his spear as useless.
Bombay, we learned, had reached Gani, and ought to return in eight days.