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The horn then was stuffed with magic powder, and, whenever an army was ordered for war, it was placed on the war-track for the soldiers to step over, in the same way as a child is sacrificed to insure victory in Unyomuezi. Of the Karague story, according to which all the Kidi people sleep in trees, Kidgwiga gave me a modified version.
I therefore called Kidgwiga, and after explaining these circumstances, advised him to go back to Kamrasi. He was loth to leave, he said, until his commission was fully performed; but as I thought it advisable, he would consent.
More disgusted with Kamrasi than ever, I called Kidgwiga up, and told him I was led to expect from Rumanika that I should find his king a good and reasonable man, which I believed, considering it was said by an unprejudiced person. Mtesa, on the contrary, told me Kamrasi treated all his guests with disrespect, sending them to the farther side of the N'yanzi.
To keep us amused, Kidgwiga informed us that Kamrasi and Mtesa in fact, all the Wahuma came originally from a stock of the same tribe dwelling beyond Kidi. All bury their dead in the same way, under ground; but the kings are toasted first for months till they are like sun-dried meat, when the lower jaw is cut out and preserved, covered with beads.
I heard from Kidgwiga that some of those Gani men now ordered to go with Bombay had actually been visiting here when the latter shot his first cow at the palace, but had gone to their homes to give information of us, and had returned again.
For my part, I was only too rejoiced to see Grant could limp about a bit, and was able to laugh over the picturesque and amusing account he gave me of his own rough travels. 28th. The king in the morning sent Budja, his ambassador, with Kamrasi's Kidgwiga, over to me for my men and letters, to go to Kamrasi's again and ask for the road to Gani.
The women, anything but pretty, wore their mbugu cut into two flounces, fastened with a drawing-string round the waist; and, in place of stockings, they bound strings of small iron beads, kept bright and shining, carefully up the leg from the ankle to the bottom of the calf. Kidgwiga with our cattle arrived in the morning.
When this message was fully delivered, Budja said we must return without a day's delay. I, on the contrary, called up Kidgwiga. I did not like my men having been kept prisoners in Uganda, and pronounced in public that I would not return. It would be an insult to Kamrasi my doing so, for I was now in his "house" at his own invitation.
The reply was, Kamrasi would not have us disfigured in this way for all the world; men were appointed to convey our traps to the west end at once; and Kidgwiga, Vittagura, and Kajunju rushed over to give us the news in all hast lest we should execute our threat, and they were glad to find us with our faces unchanged.
The whole affair gave us such an opinion of Kamrasi as induced us to think it would have served him right had we joined Mtesa and given him a thrashing. This, I said, was put in our power by an alliance with his refractory brothers; but Kidgwiga only laughed and said, "Nonsense!
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