Roused by the noise, curious to know the meaning of it, and not without a feeling of uneasiness, we left our huts, made our men fall in, and received this formal deputation with all the solemnity possible.
The envoy steps to the front and speaks, Nassar interprets, and we learn that the sovereign of the Monbuttoos demands the hand of our sister in marriage.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
We are really alarmed. The demand has its ludicrous aspect, but, preferred by Munza, whose character we know, it is formidable as well. How are we to decline the honour he thinks he is doing us, without wounding beyond redress his pride both as a man and a king?
Suppose that, to gain time, we reply that his proposition cannot be accepted without some consideration; suppose we allow him to hope, and our position becomes thereby more dangerous? De Morin is averse from this, and is of opinion that we should appear scandalized, without, at the same time, wounding the King's vanity. We agree with that view of the case, and send word to Munza that he is insulting our sister by asking her to share the lot of his numerous wives.
What impression will these words produce on the King? He is not the man to take matters quietly and acknowledge himself beaten. He is on the point of sending us another message and we are in terrible anxiety.
No, this time he leaves off talking, and acts.
Ten soldiers, carrying the huge drums, already described, which throughout Africa are used to summon the people to hear the orders of their chiefs or kings, left the palace and proceeded in various directions through the village, one of them performing his allotted task at a short distance from our encampment. The Monbuttoos quickly responded to the summons, formed themselves into a large circle, and immediately afterwards cries of joy resounded from all sides.
Nassar, who mingled with the crowd, came running to us with the news that the King had invited his subjects to the palace, where he was going to distribute amongst them a large number of his wives.
This was Munza's way of replying to us. At one fell swoop he was getting rid of his whole harem, and offering it to his subjects in order that he might afterwards be able to say to us, "I have no longer a wife, nothing now stands in the way of your giving me your sister." He could not have hit upon a more ingenious device, nor have placed us in a greater difficulty, but our dismay was mingled with a feeling of pity for all these creatures, who, from the palace, were descending to cabins, and were being converted from royal wives into simple villagers.