508 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION 
naked, and a fragment of cloth does duty for the tradi¬ 
tional fig-leaf of our mother Eve. 
The Sova Mavanda sent to inform me that the 
greatest favour I could do him was to give him a pair 
of trousers. I resolved to humour him. but having 
nothing that could fit those stupendous limbs within 
many ells, I called in old Antonio, and much to his 
astonishment turned him into a tailor and sent him to 
measure his Majesty for the wished-for garment. I 
then cut out the pantaloons and set Antonio to work to 
stitch them. I cannot say they were a wonderful fit; 
but they ought to have been big enough, as they took 
five yards of wide calico ! The man was a veritable 
hippopotamus, though I must say a very good-tem¬ 
pered one. 
On the morning of the 20th, an envoy from the Sova 
came to inform me that as it was the time when the 
people kept high festival (a species of carnival), his 
Majesty, to do me honour, would come to my camp, 
masked, and dance before me. At eight o’clock some 
of his attendants arrived and a great concourse of people 
soon assembled. Half an hour later the Sova himself 
appeared, his head thrust into a huge gourd painted 
white and black, and his enormous body made still 
larger by an osier frame covered with grass-cloth, like¬ 
wise painted black and white. A sort of coat, made of 
horsehair and the tails of animals, completed his 
grotesque attire. Immediately upon his arrival the 
men formed themselves into a line with the attendants 
behind, and the women and girls removed to a distance. 
The attendants and men, with upright and motionless 
bodies, then began a monotonous chant which they 
accompanied by clapping their hands. His Majesty 
took up his station about thirty paces in front of the 
line and began an extraordinary performance, wherein 
he acted the part of a wild beast torn with rage, and 
jumped and capered about amidst the utmost applause 
from his own people and mine. This lasted half an 
hour, at the end of which time he ran off at full speed, 
followed by his men. He reappeared shortly after and 
