Meanwhile, we do everything in our power to ingratiate ourselves with the monarch, whom we are overwhelming in advance by a series of presents conveyed to him by means of the couriers sent to meet us. These presents consist of ten pieces of calico, ten rolls of cloth, several carpets and coverings of various kinds, a lantern, a pair of scissors, a sabre, a sword, a guitar, five boxes of lucifer matches, and three pairs of socks filled with beads of all sorts. If Munza is not satisfied with this miscellaneous collection, he must be very hard to please. We have adhered strictly to the usages common in such cases, and no travellers have ever displayed more generosity than we have. We, nevertheless, hold in reserve some other presents destined to complete the conquest of the monarch, to unloose his tongue on the subject of M. de Guéran, and to secure his permission for our continuing on our way southwards, should we deem it necessary.
Whilst waiting for the opportunity of making the acquaintance of Munza, let us say a few words about the subjects. And, first of all, one important remark; as regards their features, the Monbuttoos differ essentially from other black tribes, and bear on their countenances the impress of their Semitic origin. The tint of their complexion is much lighter than we have yet seen in Africa, being almost the colour of ground coffee. The features have a certain amount of delicacy about them; and occasionally an aquiline nose maybe seen. But what distinguishes them chiefly from other tribes, their special characteristic is, that at least one out of every twenty of the population has greyish light hair, approaching the colour of hemp.
Their costume, which never varies, is quite original. It is composed of the bark of a tree called the rokko (a species of fig-tree), prepared with great care and stained red-brown, which, fastened round the waist by a girdle, covers the body from the chest to the knees. Their hair, dressed like that of the Niam-Niam, is surmounted by a sort of straw hat or cap.
If the men are almost entirely clothed, the women are not. They simply tattoo their bodies in elaborate patterns, representing flowers, stars, bees, the spots of a leopard, or the stripes of a zebra. When they go out they carry with them a strip of cloth which they lay across their laps as they sit down.
We are traversing the populous district of the Maogoos, governed by one of Munza's brothers, and we come to the banks of the Welle. Thanks to a number of canoes, thirty feet long by four broad, and hollowed out of enormous trunks of trees, which were placed at our disposal by the natives, we crossed the deep, dark waters of this river, to which travellers in search of the sources of the Nile have attached great importance.
On the western bank of the river, some emissaries of the King assumed the direction of the caravan and guided us towards the royal residence, situated in the midst of a region where an earthly paradise might well find a place. At each step we came across sparkling streamlets, ferns without number, plantations of bananas, manioc, and sugar cane, and immense fig-trees, whose leafy density the sun even could not penetrate. It is a superb garden, with marvellous vegetation, full of flowers and fruit, and enlivened by the songs of a thousand birds.
My brother Parisians, when I think that, at the most moderate computation, nine-tenths of you picture Africa to yourselves as a vast desert, destitute of water and shade—wretched creatures that you are—there is not a country, perhaps, in the wide world that is watered by so many, and such great torrents and rivers, that is shaded by such gigantic trees, that is beautified by nature to such a luxuriant extent, as certain parts of central Africa. But I have no time to devote to refuting the errors of my fellow-countrymen, errors into which I formerly fell like the rest of them. Here we are, at last, within the private domain of Munza, and the only thing we have now to do is to obtain from that powerful despot the key to the enigma which is of such vital interest to us.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
The King had allotted to us, for the purposes of our camp, a large vacant space a little over two hundred yards from his own residence. And we had scarcely settled down, when, on the morning of the thirtieth of May, an officer presented himself to our interpreters with the information that his royal master would receive us that same day.
As we wished to appear before the African monarch in full splendour, we all devoted ourselves at once to the mysteries of the toilet. Since we left Khartoum we had not had any special reason for getting ourselves up regardless of expense, and it was, therefore, with a certain amount of satisfaction and a slight admixture of self-complacency, that we opened our portmanteaus, for the purpose of extracting therefrom the garments reserved for special occasions.