The shouts of the officials had drawn a great crowd of villagers around, who stood at a respectful distance, looking with intense curiosity and interest at the scene. When the interview had closed with the usual ceremonial grunts, the katikiro, swelling with a new importance, turned and made an oration to the crowd. Hearing that Kuboko was to remain as regent, they skipped and pranced about like mad things, striking up a chorus, "Okubokokuru omwami! Okubokokuru omwami!" (Strong i' th' arm is chief), which they repeated, men, women, and children, a thousand times over, with an enthusiasm at which Tom could not help being touched.
That was a field-day for the katikiro! He went about his work with a zest that showed how thoroughly he enjoyed himself. Funeral rites and the inauguration of a new chief on the same day made a novel experience for him, and he meant to drink the fullest possible delight. The funeral proceedings were despatched first. The whole population assembled in a triple ring, and large pots of museru were passed round. All the drums in the village were carried into the centre and grouped about the great king-drum--a huge thing of tapering wood, nearly as high as a man, decorated with fetish-grass and intricate designs, the drum-head secured by stout thongs of ox-hide. A dancing party of warriors, with shields, spears, and full war-paint, marched into the ring, and, the katikiro giving the word, the chief drummer banged his drum and began a solo:
"Ah! ah! ah! ah! ah! ah!
Kanwete nga imamba bweyaweta"
(Let me plunge like a lung-fish when it plunges)
"Ah! ah! ah! ah! ah! ah!"
At the same time the warriors began a slow dance, going round in a circle, and then the lugubrious strain was taken up and repeated in chorus by the whole assembly:
"Ah! ah! ah! ah! ah! ah!
Kanwete nga imamba bweyaweta
Ah! ah! ah! ah! ah! ah!"
All the drums joined in the fray, the dance quickened, the warriors sprang up several feet in the air, and all the time the pots of museru went round. Tom was sorry to see that his leading officials were becoming intoxicated, and perceived that one of his tasks would be to inculcate habits of sobriety; at present he felt that he could hardly interfere with a good grace. After this had gone on for some time, the katikiro, more sober than the rest of the magnates, put a stop to the funeral dance, and announced the ceremonial election of a chief. No time was lost in this, the programme being cut and dried. Mwonga was hailed by acclamation, and took his place on a mat of bark-cloth, where he received the obeisance of all the principal men in turn. Tom thought it well to set a good example, and greeted the chief with specially-marked respect. Then he had to take his place beside Mwonga, and as the people came up in a long line the katikiro introduced him: "This is your brother; this is your friend; this is Okubokokuru; this is the man of big medicine," and so on, reciting a tremendous list of the new regent's virtues.
When he had ended, rather for want of breath than lack of matter, the whole company sat down to smoke the ceremonial pipe. A long banana-stalk, with large ivory bowl filled with native tobacco, was handed to the new chief. Tom wondered if every individual was to smoke the pipe through, in which case the ceremony would have lasted a month. But he soon saw that that would have been too laborious and painful an operation. Mwonga lit the tobacco at a glowing brazier, took a few puffs, and passed it to Tom, who, after copying him, handed it to the katikiro. Tom found it hard to retain his gravity as he watched the spectacle. Every man was evidently on his mettle; when his turn came he expanded his lungs with surprising vigour to their greatest extent, and filled mouth, nose, and eyes with the powerful fumes till he coughed violently and the tears ran down his cheeks. His neighbour eagerly held out both hands to receive the pipe, anxious to lose none of his share, and followed the example. The solemn look on their impassive faces, as though they were performing some awful and mysterious rite, quite overcame Tom, who joined in the chorus of coughing in order to smother his laughter. When the smoking was finished, torches were lit, a new dance was begun; flutes piped, lyres jangled, drums were thumped, and the revelry was kept up far into the night.
Everyone wore a more or less dejected look next morning, and Tom took the opportunity to walk about the neighbourhood, attended by Mbutu, for the sake of having what he called a "good solid think". Now that he had definitely cast in his lot for a time with the Bahima, he was not inclined to let the grass grow under his feet. First of all he reviewed the situation. He saw no reason to doubt the people's conviction that the Arabs would return in great strength. He had but a small force of fighting-men under his control, quite inadequate to cope with even such a force as had met his uncle. From all accounts he might expect to have to deal with a host of some eight hundred Arabs, armed with rifles--not the surest of marksmen, perhaps, but formidable by reason of the moral effect of firearms, at any rate. In addition, there were probably thousands of irregulars with them, man for man, no doubt, equal in quality to his own troops. Against this huge number what availed his five or six hundred?
He thought of making an appeal to the Free State authorities, whose interest it must surely be to stamp out the Arab pests. But Boma, their capital, and, indeed, all of their regular stations, were so far away that months must pass before a properly-equipped force could reach him, even if the authorities cared to undertake the campaign. When he left England the papers were full of references to the financial difficulties of the Congo Free State, which, if all that rumour said was true, did not possess the means to cope with the small risings that constantly recurred in different parts of the country.
The Arabs, for their part, as Tom learnt afterwards, were careful not to fall foul of the Free State authorities unless they were directly attacked, as in the case of the ill-fated column cut up by Tom's captors months before. They had already suffered severely, and knew that they existed in a measure on sufferance; for which reason they now confined their depredations to remote districts in which the supremacy of the Free State was merely nominal, and where they were comparatively safe from molestation. News of their nefarious raids did indeed filter through to Europe, but merely as intertribal fights. The Free State officials were probably in no uncertainty as to the real nature of these events, but inasmuch as the Arabs were the means of forwarding a considerable quantity of ivory and rubber to the trading centres, their methods were not too deeply investigated, if they were not actually winked at.