The Tornado. 
28 
hut, one of the dozen which compose his capital. 
Seated in a chair and ready for business, he was 
surrounded by a crowd of courtiers, who listened 
attentively to every word, especially when he 
affected to whisper ; and some pretty women col¬ 
lected to peep round the corners at the Utangani 
(white man). 1 
Mr. Wilson described Roi Denis in 1856 as a 
man of middle stature, with compact frame and 
well-made, of great muscular power, about sixty 
years old, very black by contrast with the snow- 
white beard veiling his brown face. “He has a 
mild and expressive eye, a gentle and persuasive 
voice, equally affable and dignified; and, taken 
altogether, he is one of the most king-like looking 
men I have ever met in Africa,” says the reverend 
gentleman. The account reminded me of Kim- 
were the Lion of Usumbara, drawn by Dr. Krapf. 
Perhaps six years had exercised a degeneratory 
effect upon Roi Denis, or perchance I have 
more realism than sentiment; my eyes could see 
nothing but a petit vieux vienx , nearer sixty than 
seventy, with a dark, wrinkled face, and an un¬ 
commonly crafty eye, one of those African organs 
1 This word is the Muzungu of the Zanzibar coast, and con¬ 
tracted to Utanga and even Tanga it is found useful in expressing 
foreign wares; Utangani’s devil-fire, for instance, is a lucifer 
match. 
