The feast was over. The white man told his boys to share the remnants with the head men and the King’s wives, “for it is not every day that the King dines with us,” and to clear the table as quickly as possible.
While the boys were busy clearing away in a double sense, the King informed his host of the prowess of his early years, when he was lithe and active, and was feared throughout all the district for his fighting qualities. It was then that he won the nickname of Weni w’ezulu, i. e. the Great One of Heaven.
No sooner were the remains of the feast removed than the white man put a black thing on the table and lit it. It was a magic lantern. A white sheet was lowered from the roof, and the light from the lantern turned upon it, while the lamp that illuminated the room was put out.
This caused the King to express some nervous fears, but a few quiet words from the white man pacified him. It appeared that the white man had often given lantern exhibitions in the open air, because there was no building large enough to contain the crowds that came to see the wonderful pictures; and as the sheet was put for convenience of erection over the front of one of the houses, and the breezes caused the sheet to gently move, the natives said: “The spirits came out of the house and moved about on the sheet.”
The King had heard of these suspicious rumours, and as he could not mingle with the crowds, he had asked the white man for a show all to himself. Hence the invitation to dinner and the magic lantern display.
Before exhibiting the pictures the white man referred to this silly talk, and excused it because the people did not know any better. He raised the sheet and showed the King the solid stone wall, explained the working of the lantern, gave the King one of the slides, and told him how the picture was thrown by the strong light on to the sheet.
After much persuasion the King put his fingers in front of the lens and saw them magnified on the sheet. He snapped his fingers and saw the movements imitated and enlarged, and at last was quite sure there was no wickedness or witchcraft about the whole affair.
The white man now threw some pictures of London on the sheet and explained them, and they needed a lot of explanation. The tall houses--room above room; the Queen’s palace and her soldiers; the big houses where the judges sat day after day--“It must be a wicked country where so many judges have to hear cases every day”; the horses and vehicles, and the people--“The people! Why, they are as numerous in your roads as driver-ants!”[[43]]
The white man then showed a few pictures of the life of Christ, and with a few words of prayer brought the visit to a close.
The King, somewhat solemnized by what he had last seen and heard, thanked the white man for the dinner and the pictures, and, getting into his hammock, was carried by his six stalwart head men back to his house.