"She is not the wife of any of us," replied de Morin. "She is our sister."
"Ah! Their sister! Very good!" said Munza, repeating his remark two or three times.
Nevertheless, he did not appear convinced. Amongst the Africans, family affection is very slight and does not imply any obligation. A wife may accompany her husband to war or on any other expedition, but his mothers, daughters, or sisters do not carry their devotion to this extreme. Consequently, Munza, after a moment's reflection, gave utterance to his doubts. It seemed extraordinary to him that the white woman should have undertaken so long a journey, and should have come as far as his dominions merely in order that she might not be separated from her brothers.
Our friend saw that he had failed to give an intelligible explanation of Madame de Guéran's presence amongst us, and therefore hastened to say—
"I never said that our sister had not a private reason for accompanying us. It is precisely to explain this reason to the King that we have asked for a private audience."
On hearing this, Munza thought it high time to close the proceedings.
Nothing could have been easier. He made a sign, and immediately the court, accustomed to obey his slightest look, commenced the hymn, "Ee, Ee, tchupy, tchupy, Ee, Munza, Ee." He responded with a stentorian, "Brr," addressed, apparently to us, and left the hall with the same majestic step with which he had entered it, followed by all his wives, and the sound of kettle-drums, bells, trumpets, ivory horns, and "all kinds of music."
CHAPTER XXXI.
It appeared that Munza had shown us the greatest marks of favour. As a rule he received strangers very coldly and rarely addressed them, and to converse with any one at such length as he had done with us was a mark of distinguished regard.
We could estimate our advance in royal favour by comparing the attitude of his courtiers after his departure with their manner towards us before his arrival. Two hours previously they had been silent and reserved, but now they showed themselves eager to make our acquaintance, polite, and rather troublesome. They surrounded us and asked all sorts of questions, jostling each other to inspect us closely and touch our clothes. Some presumptuous hands reached our faces, and we were obliged to rap the knuckles of the most importunate with the handles of our hunting knives. Assisted by Nassar and our interpreter, we made a regular ring round Madame de Guéran, and were, fortunately, able to prevent any one from coming near her.