CHAPTER XXX.

He rose, and received from the hands of one of his wives an article something like those well-known playthings for babies, usually called rattles. It was made of a wicker stick, with a little basket at the end filled with pebbles. It was the monarch's _bâton_, and he wielded it pompously, like a regular leader of the orchestra. At once the trumpets, ivory horns, kettle drums, bells large and small, and all kinds of music, both iron and copper, including all the kitchen utensils of the Monbuttoos, honoured us with a hubbub even more discordant than the former one.

Occasionally the orchestra ceased, to allow of a solo being performed. A musician stepped to the front, and produced from a huge trumpet sounds intended to represent the sough of the wind, the songs of birds, the rumbling of a storm, or the roaring of lions. Amongst this primitive race, what is called imitative music is always highly esteemed.

The concert was brought to a close by renewed shouts of "Ee, Ee, tchupy, tchupy, Ee, Munza, Ee."

The monarch took his seat once more on the throne, and it dawned upon us that, after having allowed us to admire him from a plastic point of view, and as a _chef d'orchestre_, he was at length disposed to enter into conversation.

Nassar having by my order stepped forward into the empty space between us and the King, that royal personage intimated his wish to speak with the chief of the caravan.

As soon as this request was translated to us, we begged de Morin to represent us. He got up accordingly, took his stool, placed it in the small reserved space, and quietly seated himself by the side of Nassar and in front of the King, as unembarrassed as if he had been at his club.

But Munza did not appear to be satisfied with this arrangement, de Morin, apparently, not being the one he wanted. At the same time he pointed to Joseph, both by look and gesture.

"That is not the chief," said Nassar, "That is a servant, a slave. You cannot converse with a slave, O King."

"No, no, it is the chief," persisted Munza, pointing now to Joseph's coat and necktie.

We understood at once. When Schweinfurth was received by the King, two years previously, he wore, as a _savant_, a black coat and white necktie. Seeing our servant in this official guise, exactly like that worn by the German traveller, Munza thought that Joseph was the most important personage amongst us.

Nassar took upon himself to explain away the error, but it was with considerable difficulty that he succeeded in doing so, the King saying over and over again, "The white man was dressed in that way. Why does your slave wear the same clothes as the great chief?"

He would have looked upon us as impostors if we had told him that with us the leading men in the country, ministers, and sovereigns wear precisely the same dress as the most disreputable waiter in an eating-house. We were thus compelled to seek another explanation, and, in order not to depreciate Schweinfurth in the monarch's estimation, we declared that, during the last two years, the fashion in our country had undergone a complete revolution, and that de Morin, Delange, and I alone wore the costume befitting our exalted rank. This was not very intelligible to the ruler of a people amongst whom fashion never changes, but Munza, nevertheless, condescended to accept the explanation, or, as was far more likely the case, with that quickness of perception of which, later on, we had too many proofs, he recognised, after having examined de Morin and Joseph attentively, that it is not the cowl which makes the monk.

With the assistance of Nassar, conversation between my friend and the African King was speedily in full swing. The latter had resumed his nonchalant attitude, and continued to emit from his pipe, at regular intervals, whiffs of smoke, which he sent curling through the air. De Morin, with a cigar in his mouth, astride on his diminutive bench, his right leg slightly raised, and his hands clasping his knee, had posed himself after a somewhat peculiar fashion, which, it is to be hoped, Munza considered respectful.

Profound silence reigned throughout our escort and amongst the wives and courtiers of the King. His Majesty was about to speak, and no one dared say a word.

The very first words uttered by Munza showed the Europeans that they had to deal with a man of intelligence, and that they must be on their guard accordingly.

"Who are you? Whence come you? And what motive has brought you to my dominions?" asked his Majesty of Monbuttoo.

"We are," replied de Morin, "personages of importance in our country, and we are travelling for our own pleasure and to see you."

"How have you heard about me?"

"From Schweinfurth, who has praised your virtue, your power, and your generosity. Far away, in the North, the kings, the nobles, and the people talk about you."

Munza appeared flattered; his eyes brightened, and he drew himself up.

"And has the white man only spoken well of me?"

"Certainly; you were always good to him."

"It is true; but I did not grant his request to be permitted to go towards the south, as he wished. Did you know that?"

"Yes, I not only knew that, but also the motives of your refusal."

The King seemed astonished.

"Tell me them. I desire you to tell me," he said.

"I ask nothing better," replied de Morin, "and the more so because I agree with you. You feared that the merchant, Aboo Sammit, who accompanied Schweinfurth, would establish commercial relations with the other kingdoms, south, east, and west, which border on yours. If Schweinfurth, instead of being accompanied by Aboo Sammit, had been alone, you would have allowed him to cross your territory, as you will certainly permit us to do, seeing that we are not engaged in either the ivory or the slave trade."

"Ah!" said the African monarch, "you want to go southwards."

"We intend," replied de Morin, boldly, "to ask your permission to do so."

Munza, for the first time, looked our friend full in the face, and said to him—

"You have not, then, as you stated, left your country simply for the sake of seeing me, because you also wish to know my neighbour?"

The observation was shrewd enough, but, fortunately, de Morin did not move a muscle.

"We are come," said he, "to pay you a visit, but we must go back to our own country, and we do not wish to do so by the same way that we came."

"But, since you have come from the north, you must take the road back to the north. Why, then, do you talk of going south?"

"Because in the south I shall find the sea, and vessels which will take me back to my country, to the north, without my having the trouble of walking there."

"The sea!" repeated the King, slowly. "Yes, the white man spoke to me about that, but I did not understand him. Explain to me, if you can, what the sea is."

"Have you any lakes in your country—what they call in the east the Nyanzas?"

"No. I have not any."

"But you have plenty of rivers?"

"Rivers? Yes, yes—the Gadda, the Keebally—"

"Good! The sea is composed of a vast number of rivers, without banks, ranged one alongside the other."

Munza shut his eyes to conjure up the figure thus presented to him. Did he succeed? We never knew, for he did not again utter a word on the subject. All the Europeans who have ever attempted to give the central tribes an idea of the ocean have failed. It has been often remarked that their imagination cannot grasp the notion. De Morin would, possibly, have done better, had he taken the sky as his point of comparison, and endeavoured to explain that the sea was a sky turned upside down, whose limits the eye is powerless to reach, and which lies ahead instead of being above.

"So," resumed the King, "it is to rejoin the sea that you wish to cross my territory and reach the south?"

"Principally for that reason, but I have also another motive."

"Tell it to me."

"Not now; there are too many people present, and white men are not in the habit of telling everybody their secrets. When you are kind enough to grant me, and my friends here, a private audience, we will tell you the real aim of our journey."

"Very well," said the King, secretly flattered by the confidence thus reposed in him, as well as by the distinction drawn between his subjects and himself, "I will receive you to-morrow, at sunset."

He was silent for a moment, but we could easily perceive that he had something else to say. With his right elbow resting on the arm of his throne, and his head supported on his hand, he looked every now and then in our direction, and Madame de Guéran appeared invariably to attract his attention. His black almond-shaped eyes were constantly turned towards her, and he evidently wished to put certain questions to us, but at the same time was afraid of appearing to take too great an interest in us, lest by so doing he should lose some of his dignity.

At length his curiosity got the better of his pride, and, addressing Nassar, he said—

"Ask the chief who the two white men are who are sitting near him?"

He was taking a roundabout way to get at Madame de Guéran, who interested him far more than we did.

As soon as Nassar had translated the question, de Morin replied unhesitatingly that we were his two brothers. Pointing to me, he said that I was a very learned man, able to write as Schweinfurth had done in Munza's presence. Delange he described as a great doctor, capable of curing all diseases.

"And that old woman there?" asked the King, suddenly, nodding towards Miss Poles.

Nassar, who had a grudge against our beloved Englishwoman, occasionally somewhat hasty with him, instead of toning down the expression made use of by Munza, repeated it in a loud and very distinct tone of voice. This was all the more cruel towards Miss Beatrice, because when the King looked at her, and before he had called her an old woman, she had half risen from her seat, had taken off her spectacles to produce a more magical effect, and had smiled in her most gracious manner.

When she heard the words—"and that old woman there"—she at first fell back on her seat as if she had been shot, but then she jumped up, with flashing eye and burning cheek, and thus apostrophised the King.

"An old woman! An old woman! That savage, that Goth, that cannibal—to call me an old woman! Do you not know, you wretched thing, that in your seraglio there is not a woman fit to be named in the same breath with me? Old! I, to be called old at my age!"

In spite of all our efforts, we could not succeed in calming our irate companion. Madame de Guéran alone managed it by telling her that in the countries where we were a woman is considered old at twenty, and that she herself, notwithstanding her evident youth, would be put in the same category with Miss Poles.

The King, without taking any notice of the exclamations and gesticulations of Miss Poles, or paying the slightest attention to a scene, which, by the way, must have been quite unintelligible to him, went on eating his bananas and cola nuts. He had, however, the politeness to offer a banana to de Morin, who, still astride on his stool, with his back to us, munched it quietly and, through the medium of Nassar, gave the king some _sotto voce_ particulars about Miss Poles which seemed to amuse his Majesty.

At last, Munza, giving up all circuitous questioning and beating about the bush, said to Nassar abruptly—

"The white woman," looking towards Madame de Guéran, "is, doubtless, the chief's wife?"

Our interpreter, who had been cautioned not to give any reply unless dictated by us, duly translated the question.

"Tell him," said de Morin, "that I have no wife."

The King, as soon as this reply was conveyed to him, opened his mouth to its utmost limits in token of amazement, and all his court imitated his example, a proceeding which frightened Joseph and the Nubians of the escort awfully. They thought the dinner hour was come, and that they would be the _pièce de resistance_.

As for the women, they simply roared with laughter, although they were accustomed not to indulge in any such demonstrations in the presence of their royal spouse. He, too, led away by the example of his surroundings, ended by bursting into a fit of laughter. This Sultan, possessing from three to four hundred wives, counting his mothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, could with difficulty understand a man being destitute of a single one. But his merriment was only transitory. His countenance recovered its serious, apathetic expression, and he requested that de Morin would point out which of his companions was the husband of the white woman.

"She is not the wife of any of us," replied de Morin. "She is our sister."

"Ah! Their sister! Very good!" said Munza, repeating his remark two or three times.

Nevertheless, he did not appear convinced. Amongst the Africans, family affection is very slight and does not imply any obligation. A wife may accompany her husband to war or on any other expedition, but his mothers, daughters, or sisters do not carry their devotion to this extreme. Consequently, Munza, after a moment's reflection, gave utterance to his doubts. It seemed extraordinary to him that the white woman should have undertaken so long a journey, and should have come as far as his dominions merely in order that she might not be separated from her brothers.

Our friend saw that he had failed to give an intelligible explanation of Madame de Guéran's presence amongst us, and therefore hastened to say—

"I never said that our sister had not a private reason for accompanying us. It is precisely to explain this reason to the King that we have asked for a private audience."

On hearing this, Munza thought it high time to close the proceedings.

Nothing could have been easier. He made a sign, and immediately the court, accustomed to obey his slightest look, commenced the hymn, "Ee, Ee, tchupy, tchupy, Ee, Munza, Ee." He responded with a stentorian, "Brr," addressed, apparently to us, and left the hall with the same majestic step with which he had entered it, followed by all his wives, and the sound of kettle-drums, bells, trumpets, ivory horns, and "all kinds of music."