THE SOUDANESE 



159 



fore reason to feel thankful, that when I travelled the very same 

 road on the preceding day I met with no mishap. 



On this evening the Wanyoro chief Bekamba was murdered 

 by the Soudanese. He was one of the six great chiefs of 

 Unyoro, and he ruled over the district around Masindi. His 

 kraal was only a few minutes' walk from the fort. I often saw 

 him, when he paid a state visit to the officer in command. He 

 was an old man with a small curly grey beard. As he was 

 infirm on one leg, the British Government had made him a 

 present of the two-wheeled hand-cart shown in the illustration. 

 He was very proud of this vehicle, his state-carriage, and 

 always rode in 

 it. He would 

 call at the 

 otttce, leaning 

 on his long 

 staff. When 

 seated in his 

 state - carriage, 

 he always car- 

 ried a fly-whip 

 in his right 

 hand and a 

 long pipe in 

 his left. I made 

 his acquaint- 

 ance in rather a curious way, and our first meeting greatly 

 impressed me in his favour. I was out for a walk, and 

 passing near a kraal I inquired of the door-keeper the way 

 to the nearest spot for water and whether it was a river 

 or a swamp. The man hurriedly went in and, to my sur- 

 prise, an old gentlemanly negro, dressed in white, came 

 limping out on his staff, carrying a bowl of water in his hand. 

 I could see at a glance that he was some great man, but I had 

 no idea it was Bekamba himself, the supreme chief of the 

 district. He had misunderstood his servant ; he thought I had 

 asked for some water to drink, and so he had brought it in his 

 own hand, though surrounded by a crowd of servants and of 

 smaller chiefs. 



The circumstance brings forcibly to one's mind the Patriarchs 

 who, wath true Eastern courtesy, personally waited on the 



BEKAMBA, THE WANYORO CHIEF, IX HIS STATE-CARRIAGE. 



