300 THE GREAT JOURNEY FROM SEA TO SEA. 



dry, this whip is nearly as hard as iron, and scarcely less heavy, so 

 that at every blow the sharp edges cut deeply into the flesh. 



Wife flogging, however, w^as not all ; he was in the habit of kill- 

 ing his wives and their attendants without the least remorse. There 

 was scarcely a day when some woman was not led to execution, and 

 some days three or four Avere murdered. Mostly they were female 

 attendants of the queens, but frequently the royal pages dragged 

 out a woman whose single cockade on the top of her head announced 

 her as one of the king's wives. 



AN AFRICAN BLUEBEARD. 



Mtesa, in fact, was a complete African Bluebeard, continually 

 marrying and killing, the brides, however, exceeding the victims in 

 number. Royal marriage is a very simple business in Uganda. 

 Parents who have offended their king and want to pacify him, or 

 who desire to be looked on favorably by him, bring their daughters 

 and offer them as he sits at the door of his house. As is the case 

 with all his female attendants, they are totally unclothed, and stand 

 before the king in ignorance of their future. If he accept them, 

 he makes them sit down, seats himself on their knees, and embraces 



them. 



This is the whole of the ceremony, and as each girl is thus 

 accepted, the happy parents perform the curious salutation called 

 "n yanzigging," that is, prostrating themselves on the ground, floun- 

 dering about, clapping their hands, and ejaculating the word 

 "n'yans," or thanks, as fast as they can say it. . 



Twenty or thirty brides wall sometimes be presented to him in 

 a single morning, and he will accept more than half of them, some 

 of them being afterward raised to the rank of wives, while the 

 others are relegated to the position of attendants. 



Life in the palace may be honorable enough, but seems to be 

 anything but agreeable, except to the king. The whole of the court 

 are abject slaves, and at the mercy of any momentary caprice of 

 the merciless, thoughtless, irresponsible despot. Whatever wish 

 may happen to enter the king's head must be executed at once, or 

 woe to the delinquent w^io fails to carry it out. Restless and cap- 



