194 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



of as many tents as might be necessary. The guest, 

 who was welcomed with joyful tumult by a crowd of 

 gazers, and was conducted to the newly-built quarters, 

 where he received a present of bullocks and grain, 

 plantains and sugar-canes. After three or four days for 

 repose, he was summoned to the Barzah or audience hall, 

 outside of which he found a squatting body of about 

 2000 guards armed only with staves. Allowed to retain 

 his weapons, he entered with an interpreter and saluted 

 the chief, who, without rising, motioned his guest to sit 

 down in front of him. Suna's only cushion was a 

 mbugu ; his dress was of the same stuff ; two spears lay 

 close at hand, and his dog was as usual by his side. The 

 Arab thought proper to assume the posture of homage, 

 namely, to sit upon his shins, bending his back, and, 

 with eyes fixed on the ground — he had been cautioned 

 against staring at the " god of earth," — to rest his hands 

 upon his lap. The levee was full; at a distance of fifty 

 paces between the king and the guards sat the ministers; 

 and inside the palace, so placed that they could see 

 nothing but the visitor's back, were the principal women, 

 who are forbidden to gaze at or to be gazed at by a 

 stranger. The room was lit with torches of a gummy 

 wood, for Suna, who eschewed pombe, took great plea- 

 sure in these audiences, which were often prolonged 

 from sunset to midnight. 



The conversation began with a string of questions 

 concerning Zanzibar, the route, the news, and the other 

 staple topics of barbarous confabulation; when it flagged, 

 a minister was called up to enliven it. No justice was ad- 

 ministered nor present offered during the first audience; 

 it concluded with the despot rising, at which signal all 

 dispersed. At the second visit Snay presented his 

 blackmail, which consisted of ten cotton cloths, and 



