298 THE GREAT JOURNEY FROM SEA TO SEA. 



is rapidly bound with the ropes snatched hastily from the heads of 

 the pages, dragged off, and put to death, no one daring to take the 

 least notice while the tragedy is being enacted. 



They have also a code of sumptuary laws which is enforced 

 wdth the greatest severity. The skin of the serval, a kind of leopard 

 cat, for example, may only be worn by those of royal descent. Once 

 Captain Speke was visited by a very agreeable young man, who 

 evidently intended to strike awe into the white man, and w^ore round 

 his neck the serval-skin emblem of royal birth. 



The attempted deception, however, recoiled upon its author, 

 who suffered the fate of the daw with the borrowed plumes. An 

 officer of rank detected the imposture, had the young man seized, 

 and challenged him to show proofs of his right to wear the emblem 

 of royalty. As he failed to do so, he w^as threatened wath being 

 brought before the king, and so compounded with the chief for a 

 fine of a hundred cows. 



SEVERE PUNISHMENTS. 



Heavy as the penalty was, the young man showed his wisdom 

 by acceding to it; for if he had been brought before the king, he 

 would assuredly have lost his life, and probably have been slowly 

 tortured to death. One punishment to which Mtesa, the king of 

 Uganda, seems to have been rather partial, was the gradual dis- 

 memberment of the criminal for the sake of feeding his pet vultures ; 

 and although on some occasions he orders them to be killed before 

 they are dismembered, he sometimes omits that precaution, and the 

 wretched beings are slowly cut to pieces with grass blades, as it is 

 against etiquette to use knives for this purpose. 



The king alone has the privilege of wearing a cock's-comb of 

 hair on the top of his head, the remainder being shaved off. This 

 privilege is sometimes extended to a favorite queen or two, so that 

 actual royalty may be at once recognized. 



When an inferior presents any article to his superior, he always 

 pats and rubs it wath his hands, and then strokes with it each side 

 of his face. This is done in order to show that no witchcraft has 

 been practiced with it, as in such a case the intended evil would 



