An African Despot 
vanced, saluted him through our interpreters, and 
took our stations on his right. The chief was in 
an excellent humor and chatted and joked with 
us during the whole interview. Noticing that 1 
was holding my wife by the hand, he laughingly 
exclaimed, “Why are you holding your wife’s 
hand ? I am not going to take her away from 
you. Put her hand down.” A general laugh 
followed this sally and I blushingly released my 
spouse’s hand. We brought him a handsome 
saddle but he took little notice of it in our pres¬ 
ence. Mr. Phillips said that this was his usual 
manner on receiving presents, but that he after¬ 
ward inspected them in private with much in¬ 
terest. After receiving a present from him, we 
again saluted by saying, “ Aku! aku!” and 
then withdrew much entertained by our visit. 
We did not shake hands with him as we did 
with all other rulers we met, as, because of some 
superstition, he never shook hands with any¬ 
body. 
63 
