THE GREAT JOURNEY FROM SEA TO SEA. 



296 



Like many other tribes whicli bear, but do not deserve, the name 

 of savages, the Waganda possess a curiously strict code of etiquette, 

 which is so stringent on some points that an offender against it is 

 Hkely to lose his life, and is sure to incur a severe penalty. If, for 

 example, a man appears before the king with his dress tied care- 



THE AFRICAN VULTURE. 



lessly, or if he makes a mistake in the mode of saluting, or if, in 

 squatting before his sovereign, he allows the least portion of his 

 limbs to be visible, he is led off to instant execution. As the fatal 

 sign is given, the victim is seized by the royal pages, who wear a 

 rope turban round their head, and at the same moment all the drums 

 and other instruments strike up, to drown his cries for mercy. He 



