GAUAKONGA, THE GREAT CHIEF 163 



their duties. We rode into the first court, walked 

 through the next, and were then divided from the 

 Royal presence only by a flashing gate. It was made 

 of tin, and the size of the sheets was that of biscuit- 

 tins. 



It was thrown open : before us sat the Great Chief 

 on a deck-chair. His turban and goggles concealed 

 just as much of him as before, and his figure looked 

 no slimmer for a broad green dummy-cartridge belt 

 that encircled it. He rose to greet us, and motioned 

 with his hand to where two more deck-chairs had been 

 placed opposite him. Mrs Talbot and I, of course, sat 

 down, leaving the men to stand. Our host seemed for 

 a moment mysteriously overcome. Then followed an 

 awful pause. His whole court, too, stood fixed and 

 rigid, and a shudder ran through them. However, in a 

 moment additional chairs were brought, our companions 

 seated themselves, and the conversation began, without 

 any suspicion on our part of the solecism we had com- 

 mitted. For later on we learnt that the Sultan, in 

 sending apologies to Captain Lucas, said he was sorry 

 that a sufficient number of chairs had not been provided, 

 but he had always believed it impossible for women to 

 sit in the presence of men. In fact, had we noticed it, 

 we were being offered at that very moment a lesson in 

 what a woman's deportment should be. For Mohma- 

 duba's wife had accompanied us, to act as interpretress 

 before the queen, whom we hoped to visit. And she, 

 with averted head and downcast eyes, had meanwhile 

 crept against the most distant wall, as if in effort to 

 efface her miserable person before one so mighty as the 

 Great Chief. 



To our great joy we were then allowed to go in and 



