In plying the Kamraviona to try if we could get rid of the annoying restraints which made our residence here a sort of imprisonment, I discovered that the whole affair was not one of blunder or accident, but that we actually were prisoners thus by design. It appeared that Kamrasi's brothers, when they heard we were coming into Unyoro, murmured, and said to the king, "Why are you bringing such guests amongst us, who will practise all kinds of diabolical sorcery, and bring evil on us?" To which Kamrasi replied, "I have invited them to come, and they shall come; and if they bring evil with them, let that all fall on my shoulders, for you shall not see them." He then built a palaver-house on the banks of the Kafu to receive us in privately; and when we were to go to Gani, it was his intention to slip us off privately down the Kafu. The brothers were so thoroughly frightened, that when Kamrasi opened his chronometer before them to show them the works in motion, they turned their heads away. The large block-tin box I gave Kamrasi, as part of his hongo, was, I heard, called Mzungu, or the white man, by him.
In the evening the beads recently brought from Gani were sent for my inspection, with an intimation that Kamrasi highly approved of them, and would like me to give him a few like them. Some of Kamrasi's spies, whom he had sent to the refractory allies of Rionga his brother, returned bringing a spear and some grass from the thatch of the hut of a Chopi chief. The removal of the grass was a piece of state policy. It was stolen by Kamrasi's orders, in order that he might spread a charm on the Chopi people, and gain such an influence over them that their spears could not prevail against the Wanyoro; but it was thought we might possess some still superior magic powder, as we had come from such a long distance, and Kamrasi would prefer to have ours. These Chopi people were leagued with the brothers, and thus kept the highroad to Gani, though the other half of Chopi remained loyal; and though Kamrasi continually sent armies against the refractory half which aided his brothers, they never retaliated by attacking this place.
We found, by the way, that certain drumming and harmonious accompaniments which we had been accustomed to hear all day and night were to continue for four moons, in celebration of twins born to Kamrasi since we came here.
3d.—Kamrasi's political department was active again to-day. Some Gani officials arrived to inform him that there were two white men in the vessel spoken of as at Gani; a second vessel was coming in there, and several others were on their way. A carnelian was shown me which the Gani people gave to Kamrasi many years ago. Kamrasi expressed a wish that I would exchange magic powders with him. He had a very large variety, and would load a horn for me with all those I desired most. He wanted also medicines for longevity and perpetual strength. Those I had given him had, he said, deprived him of strength, and he felt much reduced by their effects. He would like me to go with him and attack the island his three brothers, Rionga, Wahitu, and Pohuka, are in possession of. When I said I never fought with black men, he wished to know if I would not shoot them if they attacked me. My replay was, alluding to our fight in the river, "How did N'yamyonjo's men fare?" I found that Kamrasi had thirty brothers and as many sisters.
4th.—I gave Kamrasi a bottle of quinine, which we call "strong back," and asked him in return for a horn containing all the powders necessary to give me the gift of tongues, so that I should be able to converse with any black men whom I might meet with. We heard that Kamrasi has called all his Gani guests to play before him, and a double shot from his Blissett rifle announced to our ears that he in turn was amusing them. This was the first time the gun had been discharged since he received it, and, fearing to fire it himself, he called one of my men to do it for him.
5th.—At 9 a.m., the time for measuring the fall of rain for the last twenty-four hours, we found the rain-gauge and the bottle had been removed, so we sent Kidgwiga to inform the king we wished his magicians to come at once and institute a search for it. Kidgwiga immediately returned with the necessary adept, an old man, nearly blind, dressed in strips of old leather fastened to the waist, and carrying in one hand a cow's horn primed with magic powder, carefully covered on the mouth with leather, from which dangled an iron bell. The old creature jingled the bell, entered our hut, squatted on his hams, looked first at one, then at the other—inquired what the missing things were like, grunted, moved his skinny arm round his head, as if desirous of catching air from all four sides of the hut, then dashed the accumulated air on the head of his horn, smelt it to see if all was going right, jingled the bell again close to his ear, and grunted his satisfaction; the missing articles must be found.
To carry out the incantation more effectually, however, all my men were sent for to sit in the open before the hut, when the old doctor rose, shaking the horn and tinkling the bell close to his ear. He then, confronting one of the men, dashed the horn forward as if intending to strike him on the face, then smelt the head, then dashed at another, and so on, till he became satisfied that my men were not the thieves. He then walked into Grant's hut, inspected that, and finally went to the place where the bottle had been kept. There he walked about the grass with his arm up, and jingling the bell to his ear, first on one side, then on the other, till the track of a hyena gave him the clue, and in two or three more steps he found it. A hyena had carried it into the grass and dropped it. Bravo, for the infallible horn! and well done the king for his honesty in sending it! So I gave the king the bottle and gauge, which delighted him amazingly; and the old doctor who begged for pombe, got a goat for his trouble. My men now, recollecting the powder robbery at Uganda, said king Mtesa would not send his horn when I asked for it, because he was the culprit himself.
6th.—Kidgwiga told us to-day that king Kamrasi's sisters are not allowed to wed; they live and die virgins in his palace. Their only occupation in life consisted of drinking milk, of which each one consumes the produce daily of from ten to twenty cows, and hence they become so inordinately fat that they cannot walk. Should they wish to see a relative, or go outside the hut for any purpose, it requires eight men to lift any of them on a litter. The brothers, too, are not allowed to go out of his reach. This confinement of the palace family is considered a state necessity, as a preventive to civil wars, in the same way as the destruction of the Uganda princes, after a certain season, is thought necessary for the preservation of peace there.
7th.—In the morning the Kamraviona called, on the king's behalf, to inquire after my health, and also to make some important communications. First he was to request a supply of bullets, that the king might fire a salute when Bombay returned from Gani; next, to ask for stimulative medicine, now that he had consumed all I gave him, and gone through the preliminary course; further, to request I would spread a charm over all his subjects, so that their hearts might be inclined towards him, and they would come without calling and bow down at his feet; finally, he wished me to exchange my blood with him, that we might be brothers till death. I sent the bullets, advised him to wait a day or two for the medicine, and said there was only one charm by which he could gain the influence he required over his subjects—this was, knowledge and the power of the pen. Should he desire some of my children (meaning missionaries) to come here and instruct his, the thing would be done; but not in one year, nor even ten, for it takes many years to educate children.
As to exchanging by blood with a black man's, it was a thing quite beyond my comprehension; though Rumanika, I must confess, had asked me to do the same thing. The way the English make lasting friendships is done either by the expressions of their hearts, or by the exchange of some trifles, as keepsakes; and now, as I had given Kamrasi some specimens of English manufacture, he might give me a horn, or anything else he chose, which I could show to my friends, so as to keep him in recollection all my life.