CASE OF ADULTERY.

107

from ear to ear. No hyena touched the body, which still more confirmed the belief that she was guilty; for my Seedee cook said, "Has not the hyena the soul of a man? does he not know your thoughts when determine on shooting him?"

you

On the 10th of July my servant asked permission to go and see the uchawé. I accompanied him to the outside of the bomah (village fence), where a woman and lad lay on their faces with their arms bound painfully tight, and writhing in torture. Poor creatures! they met with no sympathy from the jeering crowd, but the ropes were slackened at my request. They had been apprehended on suspicion of having bewitched the sultan's brother, who lay sick for fifteen days, and unless they could work off the magic spell they must die. The lad said, "Take me to the forest; I know an herb remedy." On the seventh day from this scene (during which the lad was outside the village, and the woman kept by the sick patient in the stocks) the former was killed and the woman released. I went to see his body the following day, but the hyena (I was told) had taken it away. Nothing remained but blood and the ashes of some hair by a fire. Could they have tortured him by burning? A case of adultery was punished in the most horrible manner, too painful to describe minutely. They had no Divorce Court! The strapping young fellow who had found his way into the harem of the sultan, was tied to railings, stripped, certain parts of his person were smeared and covered with rags, then set fire to by the sultan in person, and he was dragged to the fire outside the village; but before he could reach it, assigais from the hands of the son

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MAKING BROTHERHOOD.

and daughter-in-law of the sultan pierced his neck and chest, and he was drawn out by one leg like a dog through the gate. The woman who committed this act came in fear to me at night, saying, “Give me protection: it is said I am to be killed for stabbing the adulterer." Though for the moment I detested the woman, I endeavoured to calm her by saying my guns would be her protection, and my men should sleep in her house. On asking her " "Why did you soil your hands with such a deed?" she replied, in the most animated way, "Oh, did I not glory in it! did the fellow not come to my bedside one night making propositions to me, and I never could get hold of him since?" The following day she, as usual, wished me good-morning, but I shuddered to think that so handsome a woman and so kind a mother, with four beautiful children who must have seen all, could have committed such an act. The woman who had offended was a middle-aged good-looking person. Nothing whatever was done to her, though she had once before been the cause of a man's death under similar circumstances. Previous to this event she would come often to look at herself in my mirror, but afterwards I did not see so much of her.

Several of our men made brotherhood with the Wezees, and the process between Bombay and the sultan's son, Keerenga, may be mentioned. My consent having been given, a mat is spread, and a confidential party or surgeon attends on each. All four squat, as if to have a game at whist; before them are two clean leaves, a little grease, and a spear-head; a cut is made under the ribs of the left side of each party, a drop of blood put on a

leaf and exchanged by the surgeons, who rub it with butter twice into the wound with the leaf, which is now torn in pieces and strewn over the "brothers"" heads. A solemn address is made by the older of the attendants, and they conclude the ceremony by rubbing their own sides with butter, shaking hands, and wishing each other success. Ten rounds of ammunition are then fired off; a compliment from each of the four drums is sounded, and they parade the village all the afternoon. This was the form observed by the Wanyamuezi. An Uganda lad, the magician of the sultan, made brotherhood with Rehan, the cook, by cutting marks on his chest and rubbing in the fat of lions. This young wizard of Uganda, with his bamboo tube, could blow away all the enemies of the sultan, or, if persuaded to go out shooting with you, a second blast from his trumpet would make the animals of the forest stand before you! The last of their unintelligible customs I shall mention, was that of a number of men amusing themselves by running fast through and about the village, singing, at every third or fourth step, "Queri" or "Hairy," and Queri Mahamba." I had seen the same custom across country, outside the village; and on the nights of this great stir, dancing would also take place.

To give a description of the difficulties and disappointments we experienced for nearly four months in procuring men to carry our luggage, would be tiresome. I shall only mention a few instances. Speke was away sixty miles in advance of me with a portion of the property: neither he nor I could proceed a step; we were like two planets compelled by a fixed law to preserve our distances. He resolved on making a flying march

110

WE SUCCEED IN MARCHING.

to Karague, in the hope of sending me relief from thence. Our own Seedees mutinied; they would not hear of this plan, as the country of Usui was dangerous,—it was certain death to accompany white men, who were considered sorcerers of the deepest dye, and they insisted that we had not enough of presents for the chiefs. Speke, ever active, to my utter surprise, walked back the sixty miles to announce this failure to me. "What has happened? I thought you were in Karague!" What was to be done? Our beads and cloth were running short; my sultan would not give us a man. Unyanyembe and the Arabs must be appealed to, and carpenters might be got to proceed to the south end of Lake Nyanza, make a raft, and so escape the danger of Usui. This plan was carried out with success. Speke returned on the nineteenth day from the Arabs, having, in going and returning, accomplished a journey of 180 miles. He had ordered from Zanzibar a fresh supply of bartering goods, of which we heard nothing till our arrival in England two years afterwards. The raft scheme had been dropped, and he had brought with him trusty guides and interpreters for Uganda. Here more than a month elapses; his guides desert, his men are more mutinous than ever, and Bombay is on his way for new guides, as his master is struck down with illness, which I knew nothing of for twenty-seven days, and had no prospect of seeing him. Suddenly a party of coast men arrive from the north, saying, "Every chief there waits you; go on, get porters; the road is clear;" so, after days of obstinate resistance and final outbreak by my old sultan, on the 12th September I was able once again to be on the move to join my companion.

CHAPTER VII.

UKUNI TO KARAGUE, SEPTEMBER 12 TO NOVEMBER 25, DISTANCE 200 MILES-COMMENCING THE JOURNEY-ATTACKED ON THE MARCH-THE WATUTA RACE-THE COUNTRY BETWEEN UKUNI AND KARAGUE

WATERFALL

- VOLCANIC

MOUNDS THE KING OF BIRDS THE WANYAMBO-THE WALINGA, OR WORKERS IN IRON-A NATIVE BEAUTY-LANGUAGE OF THE COUNTRY.

KARAGUE! how charmed we were to get there; its fine hills, lake scenery, climate, and, above all, the gentleness of the royal family, were all in such contrast to what we had experienced elsewhere of Africa and Africans, that, if surrounded by our friends, we should have been content, for a time at least, to take up our residence there. But before describing the country, the thread of our narrative must be taken up to show what had to be undergone to reach this haven. In September 1861, when preparing to move, I found that before a start could be made on an African march, particularly after a long halt, there were hundreds of annoyances unknown in other countries. No one believes you wish to move till a display is made of your beads, by counting them out, stringing them, and