. The lake regions of central Africa. A record of modern discovery . his little brief authority, he plays suchridiculous and abominable antics under heaven thatit is not strange to find his white visitors losing allpatience. In his own eyes he is a demi-god ; whilehis guests scr him as a great, hulking, evil-smellingsavage, plastered with grease, clay, and cow-dun^,hi- palace a reed hut into which you must crawl onall fours, and his royal robes a scanty blanket ofmat or wild-beast skin. And yet compliments andpresents musi be paid to this brutal and cowardlydespot, and precious time wasted in
. The lake regions of central Africa. A record of modern discovery . his little brief authority, he plays suchridiculous and abominable antics under heaven thatit is not strange to find his white visitors losing allpatience. In his own eyes he is a demi-god ; whilehis guests scr him as a great, hulking, evil-smellingsavage, plastered with grease, clay, and cow-dun^,hi- palace a reed hut into which you must crawl onall fours, and his royal robes a scanty blanket ofmat or wild-beast skin. And yet compliments andpresents musi be paid to this brutal and cowardlydespot, and precious time wasted in dancing attend-ance at his silly palavers, r looking on while liemakes a hog of himself by swallowing calabashafter calabash of native beer. Withouthis pombe,or beer, the African king could hardly exist; andwhen it is his royal pleasure to travel, mounted onthe back of one of his courtiers, a large flagon of hisfavourite beverage is carried behind him by one ofbis wives to refresh his majesty on the road. Induplicity, cruelty, and rapacity King Kamrasi was. A ROYAL PROGRESS. Page SO. THE ALBERT XYAXZA IN SIGHT. 51 abreast of any black man of his time. Speke andGrant did not love him for his inordinate and insa-tiable greed, and the long delays that this caused athis capital, Mrooli; and Baker had still less reason todo so. His exactions on that traveller ended in ademand for an exchange of wives. This was toomuch ; and the incensed explorer, holding his loadedrevolver within a foot or two of the monarchs chest,sternly told him that if the insult were repeated hewould shoot the scoundrel dead. This threat had adue effect, and next day Baker was again on themarch to the lake. And after all it turned out thatit was only a sham Kamrasi, who had been playingthe part of king before the white man; the realanointed of Unyoro had been skulking among theattendants, and when an acquaintance is made withhim later, he turns out to be several degrees moreobjectionable even than his substitut
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1881
