A JOLLY OLD CHIEF. 383 



he was determined to take it easily, and drink pombi to his heart's content. 

 This latter determination engrossed the whole attention of more than one 

 dusky Hebe, and the quantity the attractive damsels succeeded in getting 

 their spouse to imbibe was astonishing. One device certainly never struck 

 me before, and it is, I am afraid, too late to put it on record, now that the 

 good old days are gone. It consists in tickling the patient when he has had 

 quite enough to be good for him. In Marenga's case the operation seemed to 

 answer the purpose of getting far more into him than was possible by other 

 means, and his sober moments were anxiously looked for by us during our 

 stay ; the tickling was anything but to our fancy. However, in his better 

 moods, he was confidential to a degree." 



Marenga consulted Mr. Young about a gun he had which was clothed 

 with charms outwardly, and stuffed with them inwardly to a degree which 

 would have made it a serious matter for the person who might attempt to fire 

 it off. Mr. Young proceeded to unload the weapon, and drew out of it a most 

 heterogeneous collection of materials. 



" First and foremost out came about three or four inches of stringy bark, 

 very much like oakum, then a plug of iron, then a conglomeration which I 

 was gravely told was powerful medicine, but which required a pharmacopseia 

 the most uncanny to elucidate. At a venture, I should say it consisted of 

 brains (most likely human), snakes' skins, and castor oil made into a kind of 

 ointment, and, for effect's sake coloured with red ochre. Then came another 

 layer of bark oakum, and, astern of all, about a handful of coarse blasting 

 powder ; a doze, in fact, that was more fitted for a cannon than a musket. 

 ' It's sure to kill some one,' said Marenga, looking gravely at me, and I quite 

 concurred in the notion. Natives, as a rule, have no idea of the strength of 

 powder, and it is very common to see the protuberance of a badly united frac- 

 ture of the collar-bone, where a load of this kind has upset the unfortunate 

 artillery-man head over heels, shattering at times his hands and the heads of 

 the bystanders." 



" . . Surely if there be a representative still living of old King Cole, 

 he exists in our worthy host ! Such a place for drumming and singing I never 

 heard of. The first law of his court was, that the sound of singing should 

 never be out of his ears, wherever he happened to be, and there seemed no 

 chance of a repeal the whole time we were there. On the 20th of September, 

 after getting the latitude of Marenga's village, we bade adieu to the old fellow 

 and his forty wives. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, he happened to 

 be very drunk at the time. In one way we were lucky, for no delay took 

 place for either parting cup or parting present. During his more sober mo- 

 ments in the morning, he gave us a very nice ox, which came in most accept- 

 ably." 



As they had satisfactorily established the falsehood of Moosa's story, the 



