les were presented as usual, when by torchlight we
were dismissed, my men taking with them as many plantains as they could
carry.

1st.--I stayed at home all this day, because the king and queen had set
it apart for looking at and arranging their horns--mapembe, or fetishes,
as the learned call such things--to see that there are no imperfections
in the Uganga. This was something like an inquiry into the
ecclesiastical condition of the country, while, at the same time, it
was a religious ceremony, and, as such, was appropriate to the first
day after the new moon appears. This being the third moon by account, in
pursuance of ancient customs, all the people about court, including the
king, shaved their heads--the king, however, retaining his cockscomb,
the pages their double cockades, and the other officers their single
cockades on the back of the head, or either side, according to the
official rank of each. My men were occupied making trousers for the king
all day; whilst the pages, and those sent to learn the art of tailoring,
instead of doing their duty, kept continually begging for something to
present the king.

2d.--The queen now taking a sporting fit into her head, sent for me
early in the morning, with all my men, armed, to shoot a crested crane
in her palace; but though we were there as required, we were kept
waiting till late in the afternoon, when, instead of talking about
shooting, as her Wakungu had forbidden her doing it, she asked after
her two daughters--whether they had run away, or if they liked their new
abode? I replied I was sorry circumstances did not permit my coming to
thank her sooner, for I felt grateful beyond measure to her for having
charmed my house with such beautiful society. I did not follow her
advice to chain either of them with iron, for I found cords of love,
the only instrument white men know the use of, quite strong enough.
Fascinated with this speech, she said she would give me another of a
middle age between the two, expecting, as I thought, that she would thus
induce me to visit her more frequently than I did her son; but, though I
thanked her, it frightened me from visiting her for ages after.

She then said, with glowing pride, casting a sneer on the king's
hospitality, "In the days of yore, Sunna, whenever visitors came to see
him, immediately presented them with women, and, secondly, with food;
for he was very particular in looking after his guests' welfare, which
is not exa