ay,
told us he had seen a great pond. The clump, indeed, was the palace
enclosure. As to the lake, for want of a native name, I christened it
the Little Winderemere, because Grant thought it so like our own English
lake of that name. It was one of many others which, like that of Urigi,
drains the moisture of the overhanging hills, and gets drained into the
Victoria N'yanza through the Kitangule river.

To do royal honours to the king of this charming land, I ordered my men
to put down their loads and fire a volley. This was no sooner done than,
as we went to the palace gate, we received an invitation to come in at
once, for the king wished to see us before attending to anything else.
Now, leaving our traps outside, both Grant and myself, attended by
Bombay and a few of the seniors of my Wanguana, entered the vestibule,
and, walking through extensive enclosures studded with huts of kingly
dimensions, were escorted to a pent-roofed baraza, which the Arabs had
built as a sort of government office where the king might conduct his
state affairs.

Here, as we entered, we saw sitting cross-legged on the ground Rumanika
the king, and his brother Nnanaji, both of them men of noble appearance
and size. The king was plainly dressed in an Arab's black choga,
and wore, for ornament, dress-stockings of rich-coloured beads, and
neatly-worked wristlets of copper. Nnanaji, being a doctor of very high
pretensions, in addition to a check cloth wrapped round him, was covered
with charms. At their sides lay huge pipes of black clay. In their rear,
squatting quiet as mice, were all the king's sons, some six or seven
lads, who wore leather middle-coverings, and little dream-charms tied
under their chins. The first greetings of the king, delivered in good
Kisuahili, were warm and affecting, and in an instant we both felt and
saw we were in the company of men who were as unlike as they could be to
the common order of the natives of the surrounding districts. They had
fine oval faces, large eyes, and high noses, denoting the best blood
of Abyssinia. Having shaken hands in true English style, which is the
peculiar custom of the men of this country, the ever-smiling Rumanika
begged us to be seated on the ground opposite to him, and at once wished
to know what we thought of Karague, for it had struck him his mountains
were the finest in the world; and the lake, too, did we not admire it?
Then laughing, he inquired--for he knew all the story--what