218 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



drinks the rain, so I spoke to them in somewhat the following 

 terms : " People of Goram ! children of the big white king 

 who can see over all countries with one eye, who calls you 

 all by name ; who is strong for all men ; who gives you 

 peace ! Obey the chief he has set over you and know that, 

 if you do not obey, the anger of the big white king will be 

 louder than the thunder, and as sure as that sun which now 

 sets, will rise again to-morrow, he will send his soldiers Hke 

 locusts over the plain to eat up all your corn and destroy 

 your city." As the interpreter, apparently with praiseworthy 

 efforts to convey the spirit of my flowers of rhetoric, repeated 

 each sentence after me, the people nodded their heads and 

 clapped their hands. I then gave the king, at his request, 

 a letter saying the same thing in very much briefer terms, 

 for which he showed the most touching gratitude ; a piece 

 of paper covered with white man's writing is quite enough 

 to invest its possessor with paramount power at any native 

 palaver. 



Two days' march from Goram brought us to Mamaidi, 

 a fairly large Fulani town. Here the old king was not very 

 friendly and omitted the customary " dash," so I told him to 

 bring me two goats for which I paid him well. Next day, 

 upon the march I noticed two consumptive-looking creatures 

 being goaded along by my carriers, and when I asked their 

 history and was told that they were the goats that had been 

 sent in by the king, I knew that I had been " done," for I 

 had picked out two particularly fine ones the day before. 

 Therefore I sent back a messenger with a flag to the king, 

 bidding him deliver up the goats I had chosen. Soon the 

 messenger returned to say that the king refused an answer, 



