United States or Belarus ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
During this time Wasoga minstrels, playing on tambira, and accompanied by boys playing on a harmonicon, kept us amused; and a small page, with a large bundle of grass, came to me and said, "The king hopes you won't be offended if required to sit on it before him; for no person in Uganda, however high in office, is ever allowed to sit upon anything raised above the ground, nor can anybody but himself sit upon such grass as this; it is all that his throne is made of.
Wasoga were called to climb the tree and pull it down; whilst the king, in ecstasies of joy and excitement, rushed up and down the potato-field like a mad bull, jumping and plunging, waving and brandishing the gun above his head; whilst the drums beat, the attendants all woh-wohed, and the women, joining with their lord, rushed about lullalooing and dancing like insane creatures.
A Msoga was sent by the king to take the dead adjutant of yesterday out of the nest for all Wasoga are expert climbers, which is not the case with the Waganda; but the man was attacked half-way up the tree by a swarm of bees, and driven down again. 14th.
The Wasoga have been insulting his subjects, and must be reduced to subjection: for this emergency another army must be formed, of equal strength, to act by land in conjunction with the fleet. The Wahaiya have paid no tribute to his greatness lately and must be taxed."
In the antechamber I found a number of Wakungu, as usual, lounging about on the ground, smoking, chatting, and drinking pombe, whilst Wasoga amused them singing and playing on lap-harps, and little boys kept time on the harmonicon.
After the coronation is concluded, it is expected Mtesa will go into Kittari, on the west of Uganda, to fight first, and then, turning east, will fight with the Wasoga; but we think if he fights anywhere, it will be with Kamrasi. 25th and 26th. I sent Frij to the palace to inquire after Bombay, and got the usual reply: "Why is Bana in such a hurry? He is always for doing things quickly.
Then began congratulations and hand-shakings, and, finally, the inspection of the bird, which, by this time, the Wasoga had thrown down. Oh! oh! what a wonder! Its wings outspread reached further than the height of a man; we must go and show it to the brothers. Even that was not enough we must show it to the mother; and away we all rattled as fast as our legs could carry us.
Still it was a sight that attracted one to it for hours the roar of the waters, the thousands of passenger-fish, leaping at the falls with all their might; the Wasoga and Waganda fisherman coming out in boats and taking post on all the rocks with rod and hook, hippopotami and crocodiles lying sleepily on the water, the ferry at work above the falls, and cattle driven down to drink at the margin of the lake, made, in all, with the pretty nature of the country small hills, grassy-topped, with trees in the folds, and gardens on the lower slopes as interesting a picture as one could wish to see.
And as nobody would do anything for me without Kasoro's orders, I amused the people by firing at the ferry-boat upon the Usoga side, which they defied me to hit, the distance being 500 yards; but nevertheless a bullet went through her, and was afterwards brought by the Wasoga nicely folded up in a piece of mbugu.
They had been defeated in Usoga, two marches each of Kira, at the residence of Nagozigombi, Mtesa's border officer, who gave them two bullocks, but advised their returning at once to inform the king that the independent Wasoga had been fighting with his dependent Wasoga subjects for some time, and the battle would not be over for two months or more, unless he sent an army to their assistance.
Word Of The Day