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Updated: June 29, 2025
Katchiba was so completely established in his country, not only as a magician, but as "pere de famille," that every one of his villages was governed by one of his sons; thus the entire government was a family affair. The sons of course believed in their father's power of sorcery, and their influence as head men of their villages increased the prestige of the parent.
The heavy storm having cleared, the nogaras beat, and our entertaining friend determined upon a grand dance; pipes and flutes were soon heard gathering from all quarters, horns brayed, and numbers of men and women began to collect in crowds, while old Katchiba, the chief, in a state of great excitement, gave orders for the entertainment.
"Now then," said Katchiba, "go on!" but Tetel, not understanding the Obbo language, was perfectly ignorant of his rider's wishes. "Why won't he go?" inquired Katchiba. "Touch him with your stick," cried one of my men; and acting upon the suggestion, the old sorcerer gave him a tremendous whack with his staff.
Numbers of people gathered round me: foremost among them was the old chief Katchiba, whose self-satisfied countenance exhibited an extreme purity of conscience in having adhered to his promise to act as guardian during my absence. Mrs.
I'll teach these rascals to insult me!" With all this bluster, I saw that old Katchiba was in a great dilemma, and that he would give anything for a shower, but that he did not know how to get out of the scrape. It was a common freak of the tribes to sacrifice the rainmaker, should he be unsuccessful. He suddenly altered his tone, and asked, "Have you any rain in your country?"
The crest-fallen Katchiba was assisted upon his legs, and feeling rather stunned, he surveyed the horse with great astonishment; but his natural instincts soon prompted him to call for the jar of beer, and after a long draught from the mighty cup, he regained his courage, and expressed an opinion that the horse was "too high, as it was a long way to tumble down;" he therefore requested one of the "little horses;" these were the donkeys.
Conceive the feelings of Sir Samuel Baker's African friend, Katchiba, the rain-making chief, who possessed a whole houseful of thunder and lightning though he did not, he confessed, keep it in a bottle as they do in England if Sir Samuel had had the means, and the will, of giving to Katchiba's Negros a course of lectures on electricity, with appropriate experiments, and a real bottle full of real lightning among the foremost.
Ibrahim started with 120 armed men and a mass of Obbo people on the marauding expedition. On the following day Katchiba came to see us, bringing a present of flour. I gave him a tin plate, a wooden spoon, the last of the tea-cups, and a tinsel paper of mother-of-pearl shirt buttons, which took his fancy so immensely, that my wife was begged to suspend it from his neck like a medal.
"How do you bring it? Are you a rain-maker?" "I don't keep mine in bottles, but I have a houseful of thunder and lightning," he most coolly replied; "but if you can bottle lightning, you must understand rain-making. What do you think of the weather to-day?" I immediately saw the drift of the cunning old Katchiba; he wanted professional advice.
Old Katchiba came to meet us, but brought nothing, as he said the Turks had eaten up the country. An extract from my journal, dated July 1, explains the misery of our position. "This Obbo country is now a land of starvation. The natives refuse to supply provision for beads; nor will they barter anything unless in exchange for flesh.
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