The good dinner of eland, and the rest the oxen and horses had had
amidst abundant grass and water, made all ready for the afternoon trek.
Several natives had been to the little camp; and as they would be
expected at the king's town, the oxen were in-spanned, the horses
mounted to make the party look imposing, and they moved off, keeping
along the open ground about half a mile from the river's bank.
At the end of a few miles they came in sight of the town, a collection
of thatched huts in the midst of some trees, evidently a sort of summer
residence, for they could see on the right a couple of men, busily tying
together the uprights to form a fresh hut.
There were plenty of people about, but no one seemed to take notice of
their approach, till suddenly the firing of guns made all start and
halt, so as to be prepared for attack.
The General, however, warned Mr Rogers that it was only friendly
firing, for the king was evidently coming to meet them; and directly
after there was a little procession seen to be on the way.
Under these circumstances Mr Rogers drew up his little force, every one
being well armed, and with the horses that were not mounted held by the
head.
Then they waited.
"Don't laugh, my boys," said Mr Rogers, as the procession drew nearer.
"He is a ruler over his people, so deserves respect. If you ridicule
what will no doubt seem very absurd, we shall make an enemy instead of a
friend."
"We'll try and behave rightly, father," said Dick quietly; and so both
he and his brother did, but it was hard work.
His Majesty King Moseti, had evidently determined to impress the white
men with a sense of his greatness; so he came attended by his band and
body-guard, while he himself wore his regal robes, which consisted of an
ordinary English Oxford-cut blue coat and waistcoat, with white flannel
cricketing trousers, and a straw hat. He had on patent leather boots,
and carried a handsome ebony walking-stick; but his majesty, probably on
account of the heat of the climate, wore no shirt. He had, however, a
couple of rows of common glass beads round his neck, walked with his
left-hand in his pocket, and stared about him as if the visitors were
not of the slightest consequence, so that his appearance was
sufficiently imposing.
"Jist look at 'em now," said Dinny; "call themselves men, and to go
about like that, widout a bit o' rag to their backs, and only a scrap of
a skin apron hanging before and behind. Oh, go along now wid ye, ye
ought to be ashamed of yourselves."
"Hold your tongue, Dinny," cried Mr Rogers.
"Certainly, sor," said Dinny. "An' murther, hark at the music. Hadn't
I better go and take the gun away from that naygur as keeps letting it
off, sor? He'll be shuting some one directly."
"Well yes, Dinny," said his master, to Dinny's great astonishment; "go
and take away his gun. We'll go on. Do you hear?"
"Shure, sor, he mightn't like it if I did," said Dinny.
"Then stop where you are, and don't brag," said Mr Rogers sharply.
"Hark at that now," muttered Dinny.
Meanwhile the king and his court was approaching, with one of the
body-guard loading and firing an old musket in the air as fast as he
could. In front came a couple of men, hugging what at first sight
looked like cannons, but which proved to be drums, about four feet long,
secured round their necks by a skin strap, and which drums they bestrode
as they beat them with their hands.
Next came a couple more with evidently the kettle-drums, hung from their
necks and beaten, like an Indian tom-tom, at both ends. Then the chief
musician came with a large wooden harmonicon hung from his neck. This
instrument, the marimba, he beat with a couple of round hammers,
bringing forth a barbarous, modulated kind of music, not unlike that of
the marrow-bones and cleavers of the London butcher-boys, as given by
them on old-fashioned state occasions.
The instrument took Dick's attention a good deal, and he saw that it,
and another in the band, were formed by fastening so many dry hollow
gourds in a frame, over which were placed a graduated scale of pieces of
hard wood, which emitted a musical metallic sound when struck.
There was another drummer, who worked hard to earn his salary, whatever
it might be; and then came the body-guard, armed with axes, assegais,
and kiris, one and all looking, as Dinny said, as if they were the
finest fellows under the sun.
"Shure, and I'd bate the whole lot wid one stick," he muttered; and then
aloud,--
"Oh, the dirty haythen; what a noise to call music! Faix, I'd pay
something if Teddy Flaherty was here to give 'em one lilt o' the pipes.
They'd know then what music was."
The marimba players beat their instruments more loudly as they
approached the waggon, the drummers drubbed the skins of their drums,
the man behind fired his gun, the horses snorted and grew uneasy, and
Rough'un threw up his head and uttered a most dismal howl, tucked his
tail between his legs, and ran off as hard as he could go; an example
followed by Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus, as far as the howling was
concerned, the chains by which they were secured to the waggon
preventing any running away. They, however, made up for it by barking
with all their might.
The king seemed to take it as a compliment, for he came up, shook hands,
and condescended to drink a glass of wine, and to eat some sweet
biscuits and sugar-sticks, speaking in pretty good English, which he had
picked up from the missionaries, and ending by inviting Mr Rogers and
his sons to dinner.
The present of a sporting knife at the end of his visit quite won his
heart, and he seemed never weary of opening and shutting the blades,
pulling out the toothpick, tweezers, corkscrew, and lancet, with which
it was provided. After this he took his departure in the same style as
that in which he came.
"Well, we may as well pay him a barbarous compliment, boys," said Mr
Rogers. "Fire off all your barrels at once. Now, make ready! fire!"
Six shots went off in rapid succession, followed by six more from Mr
Rogers' revolver.
The result was different from what was intended, for, evidently under
the impression that they were being attacked in the rear, the royal
party made a rush to escape, the king heading the flight, and, like his
warriors, getting on pretty well; but the marimba players fell over
their instruments, and the drummers got into worse difficulties still.
All at once, as there was no more firing, the king found it was a false
alarm, and came back laughing, to bang his musicians about with his
cane, and call them cowards. After which he came back to the waggon and
asked to see the revolver let off, flinching very little, and then
strutting off before his people, as much as to say, "See what a fine
brave fellow I am!"
"Look at that now," said Dinny complacently. "Why of all the cowards I
ever see--"
"I say, Dinny," said Dick, "I wonder whether the king's afraid of
lions?"
"Shure an' I'd go an' ask him, Masther Dick, if I was you," said Dinny
sulkily; and the subject, a very sore one with Dinny, was dropped.