THE GREAT JOURNEY FROM SEA TO SEA. 297 
recoil on the donor. This ceremony is well enough when employed 
with articles of use or apparel; but when meat, plantains, or other 
articles of food are rubbed with the dirty hands and well-greased 
face of the donor, the recipient, if he should happen to be a white 
man, would be only too happy to dispense with the ceremony, and 
run his risk of witchcraft. 
The officers of the court are required to shave off all their hair 
except a single cockade at the back of the head, while the pages are 
distinguished by two cockades, one over each temple, so that, even if 
they happen to be without their turbans, their rank and authority 
are at once indicated. When the king sends the pages on a mes¬ 
sage, a most picturesque sight is presented. All the commands of 
the king have to be done at full speed, and when ten or a dozen 
pages start off in a body, their dresses streaming in the air behind 
them, each striving to outrun the other, they look at a distance like 
a flight of birds rather than human beings. 
HUMAN LIFE OF NO VALUE. 
Here, as in many other countries, human life, that of the king 
excepted, is not of the least value. On one occasion Mtesa received 
a new rifle with which he was much pleased. After examining it 
for some time, he loaded it, handed it to one of his pages, and told 
him to go and shoot somebody in the outer court. The page, a mere 
boy, took the rifle, went into the court, and in a moment the report 
of the rifle showed that the king’s orders had been obeyed. 
The urchin came back grinning with delight at the feat which 
he had achieved, just like a schoolboy who has shot his first sparrow, 
and handed back the rifle to his master. As to the unfortunate man 
who was fated to be the target, nothing was heard about him, the 
murder of a man being far too common an incident to attract notice. 
On one occasion, when Mtesa and his wives were on a pleasure 
excursion, one of the favorites, a singularly good-looking woman, 
plucked a fruit, and offered it to the king, evidently intending to 
please him. Instead of taking it as intended, he flew into a violent 
passion, declared that it was the first time that a woman had ever 
