1st.—I stayed at home all this day, because the king and queen had set it apart for looking at and arranging their horns—mapembe, or fetishes, as the learned call such things—to see that there are no imperfections in the Uganga. This was something like an inquiry into the ecclesiastical condition of the country, while, at the same time, it was a religious ceremony, and, as such, was appropriate to the first day after the new moon appears. This being the third moon by account, in pursuance of ancient customs, all the people about court, including the king, shaved their heads—the king, however, retaining his cockscomb, the pages their double cockades, and the other officers their single cockades on the back of the head, or either side, according to the official rank of each. My men were occupied making trousers for the king all day; whilst the pages, and those sent to learn the art of tailoring, instead of doing their duty, kept continually begging for something to present the king.
2d.—The queen now taking a sporting fit into her head, sent for me early in the morning, with all my men, armed, to shoot a crested crane in her palace; but though we were there as required, we were kept waiting till late in the afternoon, when, instead of talking about shooting, as her Wakungu had forbidden her doing it, she asked after her two daughters—whether they had run away, or if they liked their new abode? I replied I was sorry circumstances did not permit my coming to thank her sooner, for I felt grateful beyond measure to her for having charmed my house with such beautiful society. I did not follow her advice to chain either of them with iron, for I found cords of love, the only instrument white men know the use of, quite strong enough. Fascinated with this speech, she said she would give me another of a middle age between the two, expecting, as I thought, that she would thus induce me to visit her more frequently than I did her son; but, though I thanked her, it frightened me from visiting her for ages after.
She then said, with glowing pride, casting a sneer on the king's hospitality, "In the days of yore, Sunna, whenever visitors came to see him, immediately presented them with women, and, secondly, with food; for he was very particular in looking after his guests' welfare, which is not exactly what you find the case now, I presume." The rest of the business of the day consisted in applications for medicine and medical treatment, which it was difficult satisfactorily to meet.
3d.—To-day Katumba, the king's head page, was sent to me with deoles to be made into trousers and waistcoats, and a large sixty-dollar silk I had given him to cover the chair with. The king likes rich colours, and I was solemnly informed that he will never wear anything but clothes like Bana.
4th.—By invitation I went to the palace at noon, with guns, and found the king holding a levee, the first since the new moon, with all heads shaved in the manner I have mentioned. Soon rising, he showed the way through the palace to a pond, which is described as his bathing N'yanza, his women attending, and pages leading the way with his guns. From this we passed on to a jungle lying between the palace hill and another situated at the northern end of the lake, where wild buffaloes frequently lie concealed in the huge papyrus rushes of a miry drain; but as none could be seen at that moment, we returned again to the palace. He showed me large mounds of earth, in the shape of cocked hats, which are private observatories, from which the surrounding country can be seen. By the side of these observatories are huts, smaller than the ordinary ones used for residing in, where the king, after the exertion of "looking out," takes his repose. Here he ordered fruit to be brought—the Matunguru, a crimson pod filled with acid seeds, which has only been observed growing by the rivers or waters of Uganda—and Kasori, a sort of liquorice-root. He then commenced eating with us, and begging again, unsuccessfully, for my compass. I tried again to make him see the absurdity of tying a charm on Whitworth's rifle, but without the least effect. In fact he mistook all my answers for admiration, and asked me, in the simplest manner possible, if I would like to possess a charm; and even when I said "No, I should be afraid of provoking Lubari's" (God's) "anger if I did so," he only wondered at my obstinacy, so thoroughly was he wedded to his belief. He then called for his wideawake, and walked with us into another quarter of his palace, when he entered a dressing-hut, followed by a number of full-grown, stark-naked women, his valets; at the same time ordering a large body of women to sit on one side the entrance, whilst I, with Bombay, were directed to sit on the other, waiting till he was ready to hold another levee. From this, we repaired to the great throne-hut, where all his Wakungu at once formed court, and business was commenced. Amongst other things, an officer, by name Mbogo, or the Buffalo, who had been sent on a wild-goose chase to look after Mr Petherick, described a journey he had made, following down the morning sun. After he had passed the limits of plantain-eating men, he came upon men who lived upon meat alone, who never wore mbugus, but either cloth or skins, and instead of the spear they used the double-edged sime. He called the people Wasewe, and their chief Kisawa; but the company pronounced them to be Masawa (Masai).
After this, about eighty men were marched into the court, with their faces blackened, and strips of plantain-bark tied on their heads, each holding up a stick in his hand in place of a spear, under the regulation that no person is permitted to carry weapons of any sort in the palace. They were led by an officer, who, standing like a captain before his company, ordered them to jump and praise the king, acting the part of fugleman himself. Then said the king, turning to me, "Did I not tell you I had sent many men to fight? These are some of my army returned; the rest are coming, and will eventually, when all are collected, go in a body to fight in Usoga." Goats and other peace-offerings were then presented; and, finally a large body of officers came in with an old man, with his two ears shorn off for having been too handsome in his youth, and a young woman who, after four days' search, had been discovered in his house. They were brought for judgment before the king.
Nothing was listened to but the plaintiff's statement, who said he had lost the woman four days, and, after considerable search, had found her concealed by the old man, who was indeed old enough to be her grandfather. From all appearances one would have said the wretched girl had run away from the plaintiff's house in consequence of ill treatment, and had harboured herself on this decrepid old man without asking his leave; but their voices in defence were never heard, for the king instantly sentenced both to death, to prevent the occurrence of such impropriety again; and, to make the example more severe, decreed that their lives should not be taken at once, but, being fed to preserve life as long as possible, they were to be dismembered bit by bit, as rations for the vultures, every day, until life was extinct. The dismayed criminals, struggling to be heard, in utter despair, were dragged away boisterously in the most barbarous manner, to the drowning music of the milele and drums.
The king, in total unconcern about the tragedy he had thus enacted, immediately on their departure said, "Now, then, for shooting, Bana; let us look at your gun." It happened to be loaded, but fortunately only with powder, to fire my announcement at the palace; for he instantly placed caps on the nipples, and let off one barrel by accident, the contents of which stuck in the thatch. This created a momentary alarm, for it was supposed the thatch had taken fire; but it was no sooner suppressed than the childish king, still sitting on his throne, to astonish his officers still more, levelled the gun from his shoulder, fired the contents of the second barrel into the faces of his squatting Wakungu, and then laughed at his own trick. In the meanwhile cows were driven in, which the king ordered his Wakungu to shoot with carbines; and as they missed them, he showed them the way to shoot with the Whitworth, never missing. The company now broke up, but I still clung to the king, begging him to allow me to purchase food with beads, as I wanted it, for my establishment was always more or less in a starving state; but he only said, "Let us know what you want and you shall always have it"; which, in Uganda, I knew from experience only meant, Don't bother me any more, but give me your spare money, and help yourself from my spacious gardens—Uganda is before you.
5th—To-day the king went on a visit with his mother, and therefore neither of them could be seen by visitors. I took a stroll towards the N'yanza, passing through the plantain-groves occupied by the king's women, where my man Sangoro had been twice taken up by the Mgemma and put in the stocks. The plantain gardens were beautifully kept by numerous women, who all ran away from fright at seeing me, save one who, taken by surprise, threw herself flat on the ground, rolled herself up in her mbugu, and, kicking with her naked heels, roared murder and help, until I poked her up, and reproached her for her folly. This little incident made my fairies bolder, and, sidling up to me one by one, they sat in a knot with me upon the ground; then clasping their heads with their hands, they woh-wohed in admiration of the white man; they never in all their lives saw anything so wonderful; his wife and children must be like him; what would not Sunna have given for such a treat?—but it was destined to Mtesa's lot. What is the interpretation of this sign, if it does not point to the favour in which Mtesa is upheld by the spirits? I wished to go, but no: "Stop a little more," they said, all in a breath, or rather out of breath in their excitement; "remove the hat and show the hair; take off the shoes and tuck up the trousers; what on earth is kept in the pockets? Oh, wonder of wonders!—and the iron!" As I put the watch close to the ear of one of them, "Tick, tick, ticks—woh, woh, woh"—everybody must hear it; and then the works had to be seen. "Oh, fearful!" said one, "hide your faces: it is the Lubari. Shut it up, Bana, shut it up; we have seen enough; but you will come again and bring us beads." So ended the day's work.
6th.—To-day I sent Bombay to the palace for food. Though rain fell in torrents, he found the king holding a levee, giving appointments, plantations, and women, according to merit, to his officers. As one officer, to whom only one woman was given, asked for more, the king called him an ingrate, and ordered him to be cut to pieces on the spot; and the sentence was, as Bombay told me, carried into effect—not with knives, for they are prohibited, but with strips of sharp-edged grass, after the executioners had first dislocated his neck by a blow delivered behind the head, with a sharp, heavy-headed club.