United States or Cameroon ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
In addition to his English dress, he wore a turban, and pretended that the glare of the sun was distressing his eyes for, in fact, he wanted me to give him a wideawake like my own. Then, as if a sudden freak had seized him, though I knew it was on account of Maula's having excited his curiosity, he said, "Where does Bana live? lead away."
He was at Maula's house, which proved the king's boy to be correct; for the convoy, afraid of encountering the voyage on the lake, had deceived my companion and brought him on by land, like true negroes. 12th.
I refused all Maula's plantains, and gave my men beads to buy grain with; and, finding it necessary to get up some indignation, said I would not stand being chained like a dog; if he would not go on ahead, I should go without him. Maula then said he would go to a friend's and come back again. I said, if he did not, I should go off; and so the conversation ended. 26th.
Determined to have her turn, she kept me waiting for a long time before she would show herself; and at last, when she came, she flounced up to her curtain, lay down in a huff, and vented her wrath, holding her head very high, and wishing to know how I could expect officers, with large establishments, to be turned out of their homes merely to give me room for one night; I ought to have been content with my fare; it was no fault of Maula's.
To obviate this distressing sort of plundering, I still served out beads to my men, and so kept them in hand a little; but they were fearfully unruly, and did not like my interference with what by the laws of the country they considered their right. Here I had to stop a day for some of N'yamgundu's women, who, in my hurry at leaving Maula's, were left behind.
At the advice of Musa, I sent Maula's son off at night to tell the old chief how sorry I was to find the Arabs so hot-headed I could not even effect an arrangement with them. It was a great pity; for Manua Sera was so much liked by the Wanyamuezi, they would, had they been able, have done anything to restore him.
Maula's house, in consequence of this, was full of beef and pombe; whilst, in his courtyard, men, women, and children, with feet in stocks, very like the old parish stocks in England, waited his pleasure, to see what demands he would make upon them as the price of their release.
Maula's friend, who, I imagined, was a spy, then asked me whom I liked most the mother or the son; but, without waiting to hear me, Maula hastily said, "The mother, the mother of course! he does not care for Mtesa, and won't go to see him." The friend coaxingly responded, "Oh no; he likes Mtesa, and will go and see him too; won't you?"
On Maula's return, I was told the king would not believe so generous a man as Bana could have sent him so few beads; he believed most of my store must have been stolen on the road, and would ask me about that to-morrow.
Word Of The Day