I wished to send a message to Mtesa by an officer who is starting at once to pay his respects at court; but although he received it, and promised to deliver it, Kasoro laughed at me for expecting that one word of it would ever reach the king; for, however, appropriate or important the matter might be, it was more than anybody dare do to tell the king, as it would be an infringement of the rule that no one is to speak to him unless in answer to a question.

My second buck of the first day was brought in by the natives, but they would not allow it to approach the hut until it had been skinned; and I found their reason to be a superstition that otherwise no others would ever be killed by the inmates of that establishment.
I marched up the left bank of the Nile at a considerable distance from the water, to the Isamba rapids, passing through rich jungle and plantain-gardens.

Nango, an old friend, and district officer of the place, first refreshed us with a dish of plantain-squash and dried fish, with pombe.

He told us he is often threatened by elephants, but he sedulously keeps them off with charms; for if they ever tasted a plantain they would never leave the garden until they had cleared it out.

He then took us to see the nearest falls of the Nile--extremely beautiful, but very confined.