THROUGH ZAMBESI A. 
395 
trifles as children are in many cases. That he was fully 
conscious of his power was easily seen. In that country 
he was the great £: I am ! ” and his every action and look 
betrayed that he was quite wrapped up in the grandeur 
of his personal importance. Vanity beamed out in every 
line of his fat and sensual countenance. Nearly ail 
African potentates, however, are imbued with the weak¬ 
ness of vanity, in fact it is their chief characteristic. 
THE COURT OF AN AFRICAN KING. 
His old and corpulent mother sat in front of him, a 
picture of obesity. With her, Chikuse had indeed a 
heavy score of debts ; for he had killed six of her lovers, 
and the seventh, a young and rather a good-featured 
man, on whom she lavished a profusion of cloth and 
beads with which he might decorate himself, stands in 
daily danger of having his earthly career cut short. 
A number of questions were asked, but never, not even 
once, could I catch the eye of Chikuse, who was careful 
that such glances should not bewitch him. 
