They saw the king, who simply asked, "Where is Bana ?" And on being told that I came, but went off again, he said, as I was informed, "That is a lie, for had he come here to see me he would not have returned"; then rising, he walked away and left the men to follow me.
I continued ruminating on these absurd entanglements, and the best way of dealing with them, when lo! to perplex me still more, in ran a bevy of the royal pages to ask for mtende beads--a whole sack of them; for the king wished to go with his women on a pilgrimage to the N'yanza.
Thinking myself very lucky to buy the king's ear so cheaply, I sent Maula as before, adding that I considered my luck very bad, as nobody here knew my position in society, else they would not treat me as they did.

My proper sphere was the palace, and unless I got a hut there, I wished to leave the country.

My first desire had always been to see the king; and if he went to the N'yanza, I trusted he would allow me to go there also.

The boys replied, "How can you go with his women?
No one ever is permitted to see them." "Well," said I, "if I cannot go to the N'yanza with him" (thinking only of the great lake, whereas they probably meant a pond in the palace enclosures, where Mtesa constantly frolics with his women), "I wish to go to Usoga and Amara, as far as the Masai; for I have no companions here but crows and vultures." They promised to take the message, but its delivery was quite another thing; for no one can speak at this court till he is spoken to, and a word put in out of season is a life lost.
On Maula's return, I was told the king would not believe so generous a man as Bana could have sent him so few beads; he believed most of my store must have been stolen on the road, and would ask me about that to-morrow.

He intimated that for the future I must fire a gun at the waiting-hut whenever I entered the palace, so that he might hear of my arrival, for he had been up that morning, and would have been glad to see me, only the boys, from fear of entering his cabinet, had forged a lie, and deprived him of any interview with me, which he had long wished to get.