such tree lies on the west of the village, likewise full of bats; but
what is most extraordinary, the bats of the east constantly go at
night to the west, and return to the east at the approach of day;
those of the west never go to the east. And the natives say their
lawful King (Figuing Coroba who had been driven out to the petty
kingdom of Bambarra) lies upon the west."

Impressing four men of every district to carry the pig to the next,
Isaaco journeyed on through Dedougou, Issicord, and five other
villages, all deserted. At Yamina, one of the women slaves whom Isaaco
had redeemed, and who had followed his expedition, found her long-lost
husband. There was much rejoicing and dancing and exchange of presents
all round. Then after crossing the Niger at Jolliba, they struck Sego
Coro, the ancient palace of the kings, where to that day (and possibly
to this) the King resorted when war was declared, to have his amulets
prepared, and don his forefathers' armor. There, too, the royal
prisoners were wont to be brought for confinement until the fasting
moon, and then cruelly murdered in the House of Death. For eight days
after it was against the law for anyone to pass the house without
putting off his hat and shoes. In the reign of the great warrior-king,
Walloo, not a moon passed without the sacrifice of blood.

VII

The next day Isaaco was summoned to the presence of the King, who
scented his presents from afar. Indeed the royal message was concerned
only with the pigs: they were to be brought in the same ingenious
manner by which Isaaco had tied them for transit. In this fashion
then, with the swine, like peace-offerings, suspended in advance,
Isaaco's motley company, begrimed with eight months' travel, came
straggling into Sego.

Encircled with his companies of guards, "young, strong, and
beardless," the great King Dacha squatted on the ground. Behind and
beside him, standing upright in the earth, glittered the four
broadswords which Mungo Park had given. As a sign that he had loosed
his hounds of war, the King was dressed in his military coat, shining
with countless amulets of gold. In the wild flaming sky burned the
remnants of the storm which had just driven him back from Douabougou.
So squatted King Dacha, and with royal impassive face, showing no mark
of the boiling curiosity within, stared at those unknown animals, the
swine. Hard on their heels shuffled Isaaco, himself also on all fours
in a deep obeisance.