to my palace at once, and will send word for him
to advance as soon as I arrive there."

About noon the succeeding day, some pages ran in to say we were to come
along without a moment's delay, as their king had ordered it. He would
not taste food until he saw me, so that everybody might know what great
respect he felt for me. In the meanwhile, however, he wished for some
gunpowder. I packed the pages off as fast as I could with some, and
tried myself to follow, but my men were all either sick or out foraging,
and therefore we could not get under way until the evening. After going
a certain distance, we came on a rush-drain, of much greater breadth
even than the Mwerango, called the Moga (or river) Myanza, which was so
deep I had to take off my trousers and tuck my clothes under my arms.
It flowed into the Mwerango, but with scarcely any current at all.
This rush-drain, all the natives assured me, rose in the hills to
the southward--not in the lake, as the Mwerango did--and it was never
bridged over like that river, because it was always fordable. This
account seemed to me reasonable; for though so much broader in its bed
than the Mwerango, it had no central, deep-flowing current.

Chapter XI. Palace, Uganda

Preparations for the Reception at the Court of Mtesa, King of
Uganda--The Ceremonial--African Diplomacy and Dignity--Feats with the
Rifle--Cruelty, and Wastefulness of Life--The Pages--The Queen-Dowager
of Uganda--Her Court Reception--I negotiate for a Palace--Conversations
with the King and Queen--The Queen's grand Entertainment--Royal
Dissipation.

To-day the king sent his pages to announce his intention of holding
a levee in my honour. I prepared for my first presentation at court,
attired in my best, though in it I cut a poor figure in comparison with
the display of the dressy Waganda. They wore neat bark cloaks resembling
the best yellow corduroy cloth, crimp and well set, as if stiffened with
starch, and over that, as upper-cloaks, a patchwork of small antelope
skins, which I observed were sewn together as well as any English
glovers could have pieced them; whilst their head-dresses, generally,
were abrus turbans, set off with highly-polished boar-tusks,
stick-charms, seeds, beads, or shells; and on their necks, arms, and
ankles they wore other charms of wood, or small horns stuffed with magic
powder, and fastened on by strings generally covered with snake-skin.
N'yamgundu and Maula demanded, as the