HIS WIVES AND FAMILY. 
139 
was a younger son, an infant, always kept at the royal 
residence, and not allowed out. The five wives of the 
king have been described by Captain Speke : several 
were of enormous proportions, unable to enter the door 
of an ordinary hut, requiring a person on each side to 
support them when moving from one place to another, 
and expressing great delight at any present the 
" Wazoongo p (white men) should send their lord and 
master. Their diet, and that of the sons and daugh- 
ters, was generally boiled plantain or milk. They 
considered their existence depended on the latter 
article of food, and certainly they all throve admirably 
upon it — the sons were full of vigour, and the women 
were fat and healthy, though not prolific. On Captain 
Speke asking to be allowed to take a young prince to 
England for education, the cry was, " They had never 
been more than ten miles from home ; how could 
they go ? — there would be no milk for them — they 
would die." Probably they had also some dread that 
the lads would be made slaves of. All of them were 
very particular and fastidious as to their diet. 
The sultan drank milk; thought the meat of goat 
and sheep unclean; would not eat fish, fowl, or guinea- 
fowl; rarely or never touched stirabout; and merely 
sucked the juice of boiled beef. He drank very little 
plaintain-wine, and was never known to be intoxicated. 
He had many superstitions; he would not drink out 
of the vessel that we or any commoner had used, and 
he combined the offices of prophet, priest, and king. 
As prophet, he would place the tusks of an elephant 
upright on the ground, fill them with charms, seal 
them, and predict rain, although his calculations 
were not always correct. As priest, three days after 
