I looked at him for a minute or two to find out whether he had been irritated or not. He smiled diplomatically and I felt that we should be friends.
I was dancing at Marseilles at that time. He came to the theatre to see me after the performance.
“What can we do that will give you pleasure in exchange for the great satisfaction that your dances have just brought us?” he asked me.
I thought the matter over a minute.
“I should like it very much if I might be present at one of your religious ceremonies.”
The black chief promised to come to my hotel, and to give me an idea of the ritualistic practices of his country.
The next day, accordingly, I made preparations for a tea-party in the hotel garden. Rugs were spread on the grass and everything was in readiness to receive the monarch.
“When will the ceremony begin?” I asked the king as soon as he had arrived.
“We shall say our prayer at six o’clock, just at sunset.”
As night came on I observed that the king and his followers began to survey the sky in every direction, and I wondered why. Noting my wonderment, the king told me that they were endeavouring to get their bearings in order to be certain of the point toward which the sun was tending at the end of his journey.