74 THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 



of men, assembled his lion force, and so swept all before him. 



Another test was then advanced at the instigation of K'yengo, 

 who thought Rumanika not quite impressive enough of his right 

 to the throne , and this was, that each heir in succession, even 

 after the drum dodge, was required to sit on the ground in a 

 certain place of the country, where, if he had courage to plant 

 himself, the land would gradually rise up, telescope fashion, until 

 it reached to the skies, when, if the aspirant was considered by 

 the spirits the proper person to inherit Karague, he vrould grad- 

 ually be lowered again without any harm happening ; but other- 

 wise, the elastic hill would suddenly collapse, and he would be 

 dashed to pieces. Now, Rumanika, by his own confession, had 

 gone through this ordeal with marked success ; so Speke asked 

 him if he found the atmosphere cold when so far up aloft, and as 

 he said he did so, Speke, laughing at the quaintness of the ques- 

 tion, told him that he saw he had learned a good practical lesson 

 on the structure of the universe, which he wished he would explain 

 to him. In a state of perplexity, K'yengo and the rest, on seeing 

 him laugh, thought something was wrong ; and turning about, 

 they thought again, and said, "No, it must have been hot, 

 because the higher one ascended the nearer he got to the sun." 



This led on to one argument after another, on geology, geog- 

 raphy, and all the natural sciences, and ended by Rumanika 

 showing Speke an iron much the shape and size of a carrot. 

 This, he said, was found by one of his villagers while tilling the 

 ground, buried some way down below the surface ; but, dig as 

 he would, he could not remove it, and therefore called some more 

 men to his help. Still, the whole of them united could not lift 

 the iron, which induced them, considering there must be some 

 magic in it, to inform the king. "Now," says Rumanika, "I 

 no sooner went there and saw the iron, than, without the smallest 

 exertion, I uplifted the iron, and brought it here as you see it. 

 What can such a sign mean?" "Of course that you are the 

 rightful king," said his flatterers. "Then," said Rumanika, in 

 exuberant spirits, " during Dagara's time, as the king was sitting 

 with many other men outside his hut, a fearful storm of thunder 



