A MOVE TO MARANTT. 
257 
hinting that I should be held a hostage until the 
goods arrived. I stipulated that meanwhile he should 
send me up the mountain. He consented, and then I 
allowed him to give the wildest scope to his covetous 
imagination. “ See,” he said, “ I want you to give 
me this bed” (patting my tidy, clean white couch). 
“Very well,” I replied, “when I come back from the 
mountain.” “ And this chair ? ” “Yes, and the 
chair, too.” “Very well, now take karatassi (paper), 
and write down all the things I want the Baloza (Sir 
John Kirk) to send me from the coast.” (I got out a 
sheet of note-paper and a pencil, and affected to 
write.) “First, I want thirty barrels of powder.” 
“ Yes,” I answered with sweet compliance, and wrote 
busily. “Next, 100 bunduki Sna-ider (Snider rifles), 
and 100 bunduki za fataki (muzzle-loading guns), and 
1000 viassi (cartridges), for the bunduki Sna-ider, and 
a big ‘ kinanda 5 (concertina) like the Arabs have, and a 
little box like this (my desk), and a table and a house 
of cloth (tent), and thirty loads of big red beads, and 
thirty loads of fine blue beads, and fifty loads of 
Merikani, and soruali (trousers—a palpable want), 
&c.” Here he paused to think of some fresh item, 
and Kiongwe, enraged at his rapacity, could no longer 
restrain his feelings, so he said to me, in broken 
English, “ This man plenty devilly.” The Sultan 
pricked up his ears, and asked suspiciously, “ Eh, 
what ? Kitu gani devilly ? ” (What sort of thing is 
“ devilly” ?) “Oh,” I replied, with much presence of 
mind, “ a sort of coat like this,” pointing to my jacket. 
“ Very well, then,” he answered, “ write down two 
devilly.” I affected to do so, and then once more 
besought the Sultan that guides might be given me 
the next morning. As his greed was now appeased 
