IN THE PAPYRUS THICKETS.
Vol. II.
Page 137.
RECEPTION AT SEPOPO’S.
A crowd of natives in leather and cotton aprons announced that the king was waiting to receive me, and after proceeding another 200 yards I stood face to face with his majesty. He was a man of about five-and-thirty, dressed in European style, with an English hat upon his head, decorated with a fine white ostrich feather. He had a broad, open countenance, large eyes, and a good-humoured expression that betrayed nothing of the tyrant that he really was. Advancing to meet me with a light and easy tread, he smiled pleasantly as he held out his hand, and after greeting Blockley in a similar fashion, he bestowed a nod of recognition on our servant April. He was accompanied by some of the principal court-officials, only one of whom wore trousers; two others had woollen garments fastened across their backs, whilst the rest were only to be distinguished from the general mob by the number of bracelets on their arms. The most noticeable part of the procession was the royal band; on either side of the king were myrimba-players bringing out the most excruciating sounds with a pair of short drumsticks from a keyboard of calabashes suspended from their shoulders by a strap; these were preceded by men with huge tubular drums, upon which they played with their fingers, accompanying the strains with their voices. Followed by this motley throng, we were conducted to a tall mimosa, where we were met by a man in European costume, whom Sepopo introduced to me as Jan Mahura, a Bechuana, who had resided three years with him as interpreter.
Blockley was able to dispense with the services of this corpulent, sly-looking individual, but to me he proceeded formally to introduce his Majesty as “Sepopo, Morena of the Zambesi.” The king then seated himself upon a little wooden stool that a servant had been carrying for him, and made signs to us to be seated on the ground; but seeing that I hesitated about taking such a position in my best suit of black, he sent for two trusses of dry grass upon which Blockley and I had to sit down without more ado.
Sepopo began to besiege Blockley with question after question, and as I was not sufficiently versed in the Sesuto-Serotse dialect to follow their conversation, I entertained myself by criticizing the company. Presently the crowd opened to admit a young man, preceded by a herald, and carrying a great wooden dish which, after making an obeisance, he placed on the open space between us and the king. The odour was quite sufficient to make us aware that the dish contained broiled fish. Sepopo picked out a fish at random and handed it to the chiefs Kapella and Mashoku, who had to eat a portion of it; and having thus satisfied himself that the food was not poisoned, he handed one each to Blockley and me, and took another himself. Our fingers had to do duty in the absence of forks, the mighty sovereign of many and many a thousand miles setting us the example in a very dexterous fashion. We had eaten nothing since breakfast, and were consequently by no means disinclined to make a good meal now; but the etiquette of the country did not permit us to eat more than half a fish, and we were expected to pass over the rest to the chiefs who were sitting next us, they in their turn taking a bit and handing the remnant to their neighbours. Ten fish constituted the whole repast, and the servants were permitted to pick the heads.
The Marutse excel in their methods of dressing fish, some being stewed in their own oil, and others, after they have been dried in the sun, being broiled on ashes. The kinds that are stewed are those known among the Zambesi tribes as tshi-mo, tshi-gatshimshi, and tshi-mashona, all rapacious fish, except the hard-lipped inquisi, being disliked by them. I rarely saw them eat the common flat-headed sheat-fish; they avoid it chiefly because its flesh is so often perforated by a parasite, a sort of spiral worm about an inch long, not unlike a trichina. A great many fish, after being sun-dried, are kept for months, and then packed in baskets and sent to the north for sale.