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Updated: June 3, 2025
After receiving what he called his dues one barsati, two yards merikani, and two yards kiniki the drums beat, and all was settled with him; but I was told the head chief Makaka, who lived ten miles to the west, and so much out of my road, had sent expressly to invite me to see him. He said it was his right I should go to him as the principal chief of the district.
"He heard that Makaka, and afterwards Lumeresi, had stopped your progress; and as he wished to see what you were like, he ordered me to send some men to you, which, as you know, I did twice. He wishes to see you, but does not like doing things in a hurry. Superstition, you know, preys on these men's minds who have not seen the world like you and myself."
The drums as yet had not beaten, for Makaka said he would not be satisfied until we had exchanged presents, to prove that we were the best of friends. To do this last act properly, I was to get ready whatever I wished to give him, whilst he would come and visit me with a bullock; but I was to give him a royal salute, or the drums would not beat.
The scoundrel only laughed as he wrapped my beautiful silk over his great broad shoulders, and said, "Yes, this will complete our present of friendship; now then for the hongo I must have exactly double of all you have given." This Sorombo trick I attributed to the instigation of Makaka, for these savages never fail to take their revenge when they can.
Suwarora by this time knows I am coming, and you may depend on it he will be just as anxious to have us in Usui as Makaka is to keep us here, and he cannot hurt us, as Rumanika is over him, and also expects us." Baraka then, in the most doleful manner, said he would go if the Pig would.
But as the two were walking off, I heard Wadimoyo say to Baraka, "Is he not afraid now? won't he go back?" which, if anything, alarmed me more than the first intelligence; for I began to think that they, and not Makaka, had got up the story.
Bui really now was my only stand-by, so I sent him off, and next had the mortification to find that he had been humbugged by honeyed words, as Baraka had been with Makaka, into believing that Lumeresi was a good man, who really had no other desire at heart than the love of seeing me. His boma, he said, did not lie much out of my line, and he did not wish a stitch of my cloth.
It overlooks the small district of Sorombo, belonging to the great western division, known as Usui, and is presided over by a Sorombo chief, named Makaka, whose extortions had been so notorious that no Arabs now ever went near him. I did not wish to do so either, though his palace lay in the direct route.
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