THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 105 



before a large number of visiting natives from an adjoining 

 kingdom. The king then became quite communicative, and 

 finally gave to Bombay the following curious reasons for his 

 conduct : 



"You don't understand the matter. At the time the white 

 men were living in Uganda, many of the people who had seen 

 them there came and described them as such monsters, they ate 

 up mountains and drank the lake dry ; and although they fed on 

 both beef and mutton, they were not satisfied until they got a 

 dish of the 'tender parts' of human beings three times a day. 

 Now I was extremely anxious to see men of such wonderful 

 natures. I could have stood their mountain-eating and lake- 

 drinking capacities, but on no consideration would I submit to 

 sacrifice my subjects to their appetites." 



This was quite a sufficient reason, for the king evidently wanted 

 to wait until he could determine whether indeed the white men 

 were such great f casters as they had been represented. 



After much more parleying and deceiving, the king at length 

 appointed an interview at ?i hut which he had specially built for 

 the purpose, where, as he :>aid, no strange eyes could see them. 

 When Speke and Grant arrived at the nc.w palace, they found the 

 king sitting on a low wooden stool which rested upon a double 

 matting of cow and leopard skins. The presents which were 

 brought for his highness were spread before him, whereupon he 

 expressed great delight ; and then referring to the absurd stories 

 told of the white men, said he did not believe them, else his 

 rivers, deprived of their fountain sources, would have run dry , 

 and that even if they did eat hills and the tender parts of man- 

 kind, they should have had enough to satisfy any reasonable 

 appetite before reaching Unyoro. 



A WONDERFUL SORCERER. 



THEREAFTER the travelers had no difficulty in seeing the king, 

 as his simple fancy was usually tickled by some new present. 

 On one occasion, Speke iclates that when the usual hour 

 arrived for him to measure the rainfall for the past twenty-four 

 hours, he found the raiu-gaage and bottle had been removed. 



