XXIV.] MEETING WITH KASONGO. 321 



Occasionally we enlivened the evenings by shooting at the January, 

 innumerable fly-catchers and goat-suckers which came swooj)- ^^'^^• 

 ing round after a hot day, and the uncertainty and swiftness of 

 their flight afforded very good practice. 



I also paid constant visits to Fume a Kenna, urging her to 

 dispatch messengers to Kasongo to hasten his return ; and to 

 Alvez, begging him to be perfectly ready to start immediately 

 Kasongo came. 



Parties of Kasongo's wives frequently came to see us; and 

 as they had usually been imbibing freely, their manners and 

 conversation were the reverse of moral and instructive. Some- 

 times they would dance, and their looseness of gesture and ex- 

 traordinary throwing - about of their limbs certainly exceeded 

 any thing I had ever seen. 



One of Jumah's slaves amused us sometimes by exhibiting 

 extraordinary tricks. His particular performance was with a 

 piece of heavy, hard wood, shaped like an hour-glass, and two 

 sticks each a foot in length. Taking a stick in each hand, he 

 would make the wood rotate rapidly, and run backward and for- 

 ward in the most extraordinary manner between the sticks, on 

 a piece of string attached to their ends ; then, by a peculiar jerk, 

 he would send the wood flying up into the air, higher than a 

 cricket -ball could be thrown, and, catching it on the string, 

 would again set it rolling. 



Notwithstanding my occupations, the Christmas of 1874 and 

 New-year's-day of 1875 passed drearily indeed, and right glad 

 was I when I heard, in the middle of January, that Kasongo 

 was, really returning in answer to my numerous messages ; and 

 on the 21st of January he actually arrived, heralded by much 

 drumming and shouting. 



In the afternoon I went with Jumali Merikani to call on 

 him, and, on entering the inclosure appropriated to his harem, 

 looked in vain for any one having the appearance of so great a 

 chief as Kasongo was reported to be. But when the assembled 

 crowd opened to allow me to pass, I saw in front of the princi- 

 pal hut a young man, taller by nearly a head than any standing 

 near. 



This was the famous Kasongo ; and behind him were some 

 women carrying his shields, while he held a spear in one hand. 



