The Discovery of The Source of the Nile [187]
my offspring; and I enjoyed the simple stories that their sable visitors told me every day they came over to smoke their pipes, which they did with the utmost familiarity, helping themselves from my stores just as they liked.
Without any breakfast, we returned by the same route by which we had come, at four miles an hour, till half the way was cleared, when the king said, laughing, "Bana, are you hungry?"--a ridiculous question after twenty-four hours of starvation, which he knew full well-- and led the way into a plantain-grove, where the first hut that was found was turned inside out for the king's accommodation, and picnic was prepared. As, however, he ordered my portion to be given outside with the pages', and allowed neither pombe or water, I gave him the slip, and walked hurriedly home, where I found Kahala smirking, and apparently glad to see us, but Meri shamming ill in bed, whilst Manamaka, the governess, was full of smiles and conversation. She declared Meri had neither tasted food or slept since my departure, but had been retching all the time. Dreadfully concerned at the doleful story I immediately thought of giving relief with medicines, but neither pulse, tongue, nor anything else indicated the slightest disorder; and to add to these troubles, Ilmas's woman had tried during my absence to hang herself, because she would not serve as servant but wished to be my wife; and Bombay's wife, after taking a doze of quinine, was delivered of a still-born child.
1st.--I visited the king, at his request, with the medicine- chest. He had caught a cold. He showed me several of his women grievously affected with boils, and expected me to cure them at once. I then went home, and found twenty men who had passed Grant, coming on a stretcher from Karague, without any of the rear property. Meri, still persistent, rejected strengthening medicines, but said, in a confidential manner, if I would give her a goat to sacrifice to the Uganga she would recover in no time. There was something in her manner when she said this that I did not like--it looked suspicious; and I contented myself by saying, "No, I am a wiser doctor than any in these lands; if anybody could cure you, that person is myself: and further, if I gave you a goat to sacrifice, God would be angry with both of us for our superstitious credulity; you must therefore say no more about it."
2d.--The whole country around the palace was in a state of commotion to-day, from Maula and his children hunting down those officers who had returned from the war, yet had not paid their respects to the king at the N'yanza, because they thought they would not be justified in calling on him so quickly after their arrival. Maula's house, in consequence of this, was full of beef and pombe; whilst, in his courtyard, men, women, and children, with feet in stocks, very like the old parish stocks in England, waited his pleasure, to see what demands he would make upon them as the price of their release. After anxiously watching, I found out that Meri was angry with me for not allowing Ilmas's woman to live in my house; and, to conquer my resolution against it-- although I ordered it with a view to please Ilmas, for he was desperately in love with her--she made herself sick by putting her finger down her throat. I scolded her for her obstinacy. She said she was ill--it was not feigned; and if I would give her a goat to sacrifice she would be well at once; for she had looked into the magic horn already, and discovered that if I have her a goat for that purpose it would prove that I loved her, and her health would be restored to her at once. Hallo! Here was a transformation from the paternal position into that of a henpecked husband! Somebody, I smelt at once, had been tampering with my household whilst I was away. I commenced investigations, and after a while found out that Rozaro's sister had brought a magician belonging to her family into the hut during my absence, who had put Meri up to this trick of extorting a goat from me, in order that he might benefit by it himself,
Without any breakfast, we returned by the same route by which we had come, at four miles an hour, till half the way was cleared, when the king said, laughing, "Bana, are you hungry?"--a ridiculous question after twenty-four hours of starvation, which he knew full well-- and led the way into a plantain-grove, where the first hut that was found was turned inside out for the king's accommodation, and picnic was prepared. As, however, he ordered my portion to be given outside with the pages', and allowed neither pombe or water, I gave him the slip, and walked hurriedly home, where I found Kahala smirking, and apparently glad to see us, but Meri shamming ill in bed, whilst Manamaka, the governess, was full of smiles and conversation. She declared Meri had neither tasted food or slept since my departure, but had been retching all the time. Dreadfully concerned at the doleful story I immediately thought of giving relief with medicines, but neither pulse, tongue, nor anything else indicated the slightest disorder; and to add to these troubles, Ilmas's woman had tried during my absence to hang herself, because she would not serve as servant but wished to be my wife; and Bombay's wife, after taking a doze of quinine, was delivered of a still-born child.
1st.--I visited the king, at his request, with the medicine- chest. He had caught a cold. He showed me several of his women grievously affected with boils, and expected me to cure them at once. I then went home, and found twenty men who had passed Grant, coming on a stretcher from Karague, without any of the rear property. Meri, still persistent, rejected strengthening medicines, but said, in a confidential manner, if I would give her a goat to sacrifice to the Uganga she would recover in no time. There was something in her manner when she said this that I did not like--it looked suspicious; and I contented myself by saying, "No, I am a wiser doctor than any in these lands; if anybody could cure you, that person is myself: and further, if I gave you a goat to sacrifice, God would be angry with both of us for our superstitious credulity; you must therefore say no more about it."
2d.--The whole country around the palace was in a state of commotion to-day, from Maula and his children hunting down those officers who had returned from the war, yet had not paid their respects to the king at the N'yanza, because they thought they would not be justified in calling on him so quickly after their arrival. Maula's house, in consequence of this, was full of beef and pombe; whilst, in his courtyard, men, women, and children, with feet in stocks, very like the old parish stocks in England, waited his pleasure, to see what demands he would make upon them as the price of their release. After anxiously watching, I found out that Meri was angry with me for not allowing Ilmas's woman to live in my house; and, to conquer my resolution against it-- although I ordered it with a view to please Ilmas, for he was desperately in love with her--she made herself sick by putting her finger down her throat. I scolded her for her obstinacy. She said she was ill--it was not feigned; and if I would give her a goat to sacrifice she would be well at once; for she had looked into the magic horn already, and discovered that if I have her a goat for that purpose it would prove that I loved her, and her health would be restored to her at once. Hallo! Here was a transformation from the paternal position into that of a henpecked husband! Somebody, I smelt at once, had been tampering with my household whilst I was away. I commenced investigations, and after a while found out that Rozaro's sister had brought a magician belonging to her family into the hut during my absence, who had put Meri up to this trick of extorting a goat from me, in order that he might benefit by it himself,