EXCHANGE OF PRESENTS. 99 



curved sword hung at his side. His head was bare, 

 as were also his feet. His leading counsellor wore a 

 similar robe, but of a bright yellow tint, and was 

 decorated in the same style, though not, perhaps, so 

 expensively, about the neck and arms. 



At last Maramia broke the silence by asking whence 

 we had come, and whither we were going; and 

 we told him our mission. We then invited him to 

 see the boat, and he inspected it closely, and was much 

 astonished. Our Sniders, breech-loading double 

 rifles, and revolvers, &c., had to be explained, and 

 shots fired from them. The cornopean had to be 

 played for nearly half an hour, and my part of the per- 

 formance was wound up by having to burn the hands 

 of some fifty natives with the glass from my binoculars. 

 This completely stumped them. I was glad when it 

 was over, and the things were put back into the boat. 

 Maramia apologized for not having come to see us 

 last night ; and on asking who was the chief of our 

 party, and being informed by Mr. Young that he was 

 the man, he presented him with a lion skin, giv- 

 ing me some fowl, flour, and rice. He received, in 

 addition to his former present, a red fez, which he 

 seemed to prize, and asked us to remain a day with 

 him for elephant hunting, but much as I should like to 

 have done so, time would not permit. He was a fine 

 intelligent man, and by far the best specimen of a 

 native I had seen. Promising to stay and shoot ele- 

 phants if possible on our return, we bid farewell to 

 Maramia and his people, and pursued our way up the 

 river, with a nice breeze in our favour. While the 

 course of the river kept us in sight of the village, the 



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