THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 4fi9 



filled with pebbles, and the court-criers and mad-charmers against 

 evil were not wanting to create din and noise, and celebrate 

 victory 7 . 



A hut of ample size had been erected on the mountain slope 

 overlooking the strait, into which Mtesa and his favorite women 

 retired. When the Emperor was seated, the "prophets of 

 Baal," or the priests and priestesses of the Muzimu, or witch- 

 craft, came up, more than a hundred in number, and offered the 

 charms to Mtesa one after another in a most tedious, ceremonious 

 way, and to all of them Mtesa condescended to point his imperial 

 forefinger. 



The chief priest was a most wonderfully dressed madman. On 

 his head he wore a huge crown of feathers, curiously and fan- 

 tastically arranged ; in his ears and around his neck were hung 

 long strings of beads ; his ankles, wrists and arms were adorned 

 with brass rings, from which depended bits of bone, teeth of 

 animals, and other charms ; around his loins was girded a leopard 

 skin with the tail in front, while in his right hand he carried a 

 native harp, on one end of which was a well-carved imitation of 

 a human head. This fantastic old villain was a rain-doctor as 

 well as a priest, and exercised a wonderful influence over 

 the ignorant savages who believed in his supernatural powers. It 

 is customary before commencing a battle to carry all the potent 

 medicines or charms of Uganda (thus propitiating the dreadful 

 Muzimu or evil spirits) to the monarch, that he may touch or 

 point his forefinger at them. They consist of dead lizards, bits 

 of wood, hide, nails of dead people, claws of animals, and beaks 

 of birds, a hideous miscellany, with mysterious compounds of 

 herbs and leaves carefully enclosed in vessels ornamented with 

 varicolored beads. 



During the battle these wizards and witches chant their incan- 

 tations, and exhibit their medicines on high before the foe, while 

 the gourd-and-pebble bearers sound a hideous alarum, enough to 

 cause the nerves of any man except an African to relax at once. 



Mtesa and his army were in full war-paint, and the principal 

 men wore splendid leopard-skins over their backs, but the Wa- 



