106 THE WORLD*S WONDERS. 



He therefore sent Kidgwiga to the king to request him to send 

 his magician and institute search for it. Kidgwiga soon returned 

 with an old man, who was almost blind, whose dress consisted of 

 strips of leather fastened to his waist. In one hand he carried 

 a cow's horn primed with magic powder, the mouth of which 

 was carefully covered with a piece of leather, from which dangled 

 an iron bell. The old creature jingled the bell, entered Speke's 

 hut, squatted on his hams, looked first at one, then at the other ; 

 inquired what the missing things were like, grunted, moved his 

 skinny arm round his head, as if desirous of catching air from 

 all four sides of the hut, then dashed the accumulated air on the 

 head of his horn, smelt it to see if all was going right, jingled 

 the bell again close to his ear, and grunted his satisfaction ; the 

 missing articles must be found. 



To carry out the incantation more effectually, however, all of 

 Speke's men were sent for to sit in the open before the hut, 

 when the old doctor rose, shaking the horn and tinkling the bell 

 close to his ear. Then, confronting one of the men, he dashed 

 the horn forward as if intending to strike him on the face, then 

 smelt the head, then dashed at another, and so on, till he became 

 satisfied that the thief was not among them. He then walked 

 into Grant's hut, inspected that, and finally went to the place 

 where the bottle had been kept. There he walked about the 

 grass with his arm up, and jingling the bell to his ear, first on 

 one side, then on the other, till the track of a hyena gave him 

 the clew, and in two or three more steps he found it. A hyena 

 had carried it into the grass and dropped it. Bravo for the 

 infallible horn ! and well done the king for his honesty in sending 

 it ! So Speke gave the king the bottle and gauge, which delighted 

 him amazingly ; and the old doctor, who begged for pombe, got 

 a goat for his trouble. 



EFFORTS TO LEAVE UNYORO. 



KAMRASI proved himself as persistent a beggar as Mtesa, and 

 to enable him to get more than Speke was willing to give, the 

 old king cunningly held his white guests prisoners, though all the 

 time professing the warmest friendship and promising whatever 



