which he could recollect:

"Hurrah! Hurrahhhhhhh! It is the Jubileeeee!
Hurrah! Hurrah! the flag that set you free!"

The native minstrel stopped in the middle of his chant; the whole
shuffling, grunting crowd was petrified in as many different poses.
Birnier leaped to his feet waving his arms wildly, yelling:

"Thus we sang the chor-uss from Atlanta to the Sea-aa!
As we {~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~}"

But before he had gotten to "Georgia," only the prostrate forms around the
fire had not fled.

CHAPTER 10

On the morning of Birnier's departure there was much movement in Ingonya
station. Every sign of preparation for the expedition had been carefully
concealed while a stranger was in the vicinity. Trumpets blared
importantly. On the great parade ground companies were formed, long lines
of rigid, ebon figures, down which strolled zu Pfeiffer inspecting
personally kits and rifles. Afterwards they were drawn up before the
flag-pole. In an address zu Pfeiffer informed them that they served under
a greater Bwana than he, the greatest Bwana in the countries of the white
or the black, who was the son of Ngai (an uncertain term meaning "son of
God" or the "son of nobody"); that the flag they bore, the brother of the
big one upon the pole, was so powerful in magic that none could withstand
it, the Totem of the Bwana Mkubwa Kuba. No wives were allowed for black or
white, and he himself set them the example; for they were embarking on a
war expedition to take a country which they knew was full of ivory, cattle
and women.

The row upon row of eyes in black faces bulged, as from the mass came the
long grunt of assent and allegiance. The three white sergeants barked at
their various companies, which wheeled into column formation and marched
past zu Pfeiffer beneath the flag in review order, their alignment and
precision a credit to their drill masters. Down below the fort on the
mouth of the bayou Sergeant Ludwig superintended the overhauling of the
steam-launch, and a native sergeant and a file of men overseered lines of
carriers bearing white men's provisions, the bulk of which was zu
Pfeiffer's personal supplies. Around the launch was a flotilla of native
canoes in charge of a small crowd of nude Kavirondo paddlers, jabbering at
the prospect of a war expedition.

Most of the day zu Pfeiffer spent in the orderly room going over documents
and giving detailed instructions to the gr