CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
THE VISIT TO THE BLACK KING.
The good dinner of eland, and the rest the oxen and horses had hadamidst abundant grass and water, made all ready for the afternoon trek.Several natives had been to the little camp; and as they would beexpected at the king's town, the oxen were in-spanned, the horsesmounted to make the party look imposing, and they moved off, keepingalong 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 collectionof thatched huts in the midst of some trees, evidently a sort of summerresidence, for they could see on the right a couple of men, busily tyingtogether the uprights to form a fresh hut.
There were plenty of people about, but no one seemed to take notice oftheir approach, till suddenly the firing of guns made all start andhalt, so as to be prepared for attack.
The General, however, warned Mr Rogers that it was only friendlyfiring, for the king was evidently coming to meet them; and directlyafter there was a little procession seen to be on the way.
Under these circumstances Mr Rogers drew up his little force, every onebeing well armed, and with the horses that were not mounted held by thehead.
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 ridiculewhat will no doubt seem very absurd, we shall make an enemy instead of afriend."
"We'll try and behave rightly, father," said Dick quietly; and so bothhe and his brother did, but it was hard work.
His Majesty King Moseti, had evidently determined to impress the whitemen with a sense of his greatness; so he came attended by his band andbody-guard, while he himself wore his regal robes, which consisted of anordinary English Oxford-cut blue coat and waistcoat, with white flannelcricketing trousers, and a straw hat. He had on patent leather boots,and carried a handsome ebony walking-stick; but his majesty, probably onaccount of the heat of the climate, wore no shirt. He had, however, acouple of rows of common glass beads round his neck, walked with hisleft-hand in his pocket, and stared about him as if the visitors werenot of the slightest consequence, so that his appearance wassufficiently imposing.
"Jist look at 'em now," said Dinny; "call themselves men, and to goabout like that, widout a bit o' rag to their backs, and only a scrap ofa skin apron hanging before and behind. Oh, go along now wid ye, yeought to be ashamed of yourselves."
"Hold your tongue, Dinny," cried Mr Rogers.
"Certainly, sor," said Dinny. "An' murther, hark at the music. Hadn'tI better go and take the gun away from that naygur as keeps letting itoff, sor? He'll be shuting some one directly."
"Well yes, Dinny," said his master, to Dinny's great astonishment; "goand 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 thebody-guard loading and firing an old musket in the air as fast as hecould. In front came a couple of men, hugging what at first sightlooked like cannons, but which proved to be drums, about four feet long,secured round their necks by a skin strap, and which drums they bestrodeas they beat them with their hands.
Next came a couple more with evidently the kettle-drums, hung from theirnecks and beaten, like an Indian tom-tom, at both ends. Then the chiefmusician came with a large wooden harmonicon hung from his neck. Thisinstrument, the marimba, he beat with a couple of round hammers,bringing forth a barbarous, modulated kind of music, not unlike that ofthe marrow-bones and cleavers of the London butcher-boys, as given bythem 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 hollowgourds in a frame, over which were placed a graduated scale of pieces ofhard wood, which emitted a musical metallic sound when struck.
There was another drummer, who worked hard to earn his salary, whateverit 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 thefinest fellows under the sun.
"Shure, and I'd bate the whole lot wid one stick," he muttered; and thenaloud,--
"Oh, the dirty haythen; what a noise to call music! Faix, I'd paysomething 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 theyapproached the waggon, the drummers drubbed the skins of their drums,the man behind fired his gun, the horses snorted and grew uneasy, andRough'un threw up his head and uttered a most dismal howl, tucked histail between his legs, and ran off as hard as he could go; an examplefollowed by Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus, as far as the howling wasconcerned, the chains by which they were secured to the waggonpreventing any running away. They, however, made up for it by barkingwith 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 sweetbiscuits and sugar-sticks, speaking in pretty good English, which he hadpicked up from the missionaries, and ending by inviting Mr Rogers andhis sons to dinner.
The present of a sporting knife at the end of his visit quite won hisheart, and he seemed never weary of opening and shutting the blades,pulling out the toothpick, tweezers, corkscrew, and lancet, with whichit was provided. After this he took his departure in the same style asthat in which he came.
"Well, we may as well pay him a barbarous compliment, boys," said MrRogers. "Fire off all your barrels at once. Now, make ready! fire!"
Six shots went off in rapid succession, followed by six more from MrRogers' revolver.
The result was different from what was intended, for, evidently underthe impression that they were being attacked in the rear, the royalparty made a rush to escape, the king heading the flight, and, like hiswarriors, getting on pretty well; but the marimba players fell overtheir instruments, and the drummers got into worse difficulties still.
All at once, as there was no more firing, the king found it was a falsealarm, and came back laughing, to bang his musicians about with hiscane, and call them cowards. After which he came back to the waggon andasked to see the revolver let off, flinching very little, and thenstrutting off before his people, as much as to say, "See what a finebrave fellow I am!"
"Look at that now," said Dinny complacently. "Why of all the cowards Iever see--"
"I say, Dinny," said Dick, "I wonder whether the king's afraid oflions?"
"Shure an' I'd go an' ask him, Masther Dick, if I was you," said Dinnysulkily; and the subject, a very sore one with Dinny, was dropped.