68 
UNYAMUEZI SULTAN. 
through, keeping in mind that this dignitary was the 
finest specimen we had seen, and was supposed to be 
enlightened, though he did not know his own age, 
could neither read, write, nor count beyond ten, and 
had no names for any day of the week, for any month, 
or for any year ! After we had been about a month 
in his district, Sultan Ugalee — i. e., Stirabout. — arrived 
at Mineenga on the 21st of April, and was saluted by 
file-firing from our volunteers, and shrill cries from the 
women. He visited us in our verandah the day follow- 
ing. He looks about twenty-two years of age ; has 
three children and thirty wives ; is six feet high, stout, 
with a stupid, heavy expression. His bare head is in 
tassels, black hanks of fibre being mixed in with his 
hair. His body is loosely wrapped round with a blue 
and yellow cotton cloth ; his loins are covered with a 
dirty oily bit of calico, and his feet are large and naked. 
A monster ivory ring is on his left wrist, while the 
right one bears a copper ring of rope pattern ; several 
hundreds of wire rings are massed round his ankles. He 
was asked to be seated on one of our iron stools, but 
looked at first frightened, and did not open his mouth. 
An old man spoke for him, and a crowd of thirty fol- 
lowers squatted behind him. Speke, to amuse him, 
produced his six-barrelled revolver, but he merely 
eyed it intently. The books of birds and animals, on 
being shown to him upside down by Sirboko, the 
head man of the village, drew from him a sickly 
smile, and he was pleased to imply that he pre- 
ferred the animals to the birds. He received some 
snuff in the palm of his hand, took a good pinch, and 
gave the rest to his spokesman. He was led to look 
at my musquito-curtained bed, and on moving away 
