He brought
fresh banana-leaves in his arms, and spread them near her, on which he
arranged meat and salt, and bananas and clotted milk, and kneeled before
her like a ready servitor.

Naku observed all his movements, her admiration for his person and
graces of body becoming stronger every minute. She peeled a mellow
banana and handed it to him, saying, "Let Kimyera taste and eat with me,
and I will then know that I am in the house of a friend."

Kimyera accepted the gift with thanks, and ate the banana as though he
had never eaten anything so delicious in his life. Then he also peeled
a beautiful and ripe banana, and, presenting it to her on a fragment of
green leaf with both hands, said to her:

"Queen Naku, it is the custom of my country for the master of the house
to wait upon his guests. Wherefore accept, O Queen, this banana as a
token of friendship from the hands of Kimyera."

The queen smiled, bent forward with her eyes fixed on his own, and took
the yellow fruit, and ate it as though such sweetness was not known in
the banana land of Ganda.

When she had eaten she said:

"List, Kimyera, and thou, Mugema, hearken well, for I am about to utter
weighty words. In Ganda, since the death of my father, there has been
no king. Sebwana is my consort by choice of the elders of the land, but
in name only. He is really only my _kate-kiro_ (Premier). But I am now
old enough to choose a king for myself, and according to custom, I may
do so. Wherefore I make known to thee, Mugema, that I have already
chosen my lord and husband, and he by due right must occupy the chair of
my father, the old king who is dead. I have said to myself since the
day before yesterday that my lord and husband shall be Kimyera."

Both Kimyera and Mugema prostrated themselves three times before Naku,
and, after the youth had recovered from his confusion and surprise, he
replied:

"But, Queen Naku, hast thou thought what the people will say to this?
May it not be that they will ask, `who is this stranger that he should
reign over us?' and they will be wroth with me and try to slay me?"

"Nay. For thou art my father's brother's son, as Mugema told me, and my
father having left no male heirs of his body, his daughter may, if she
choose, ally herself with a son of his brother. Kalimera is a younger
brother of my father. Thou seest, therefore, that thou, Kimyera, hast a
right to the king's chair, if I, Naku, will it to be so."

"And h