Should they wish to see a relative, or go outside the hut for any purpose, it requires eight men to lift any of them on a litter.

The brothers, too, are not allowed to go out of his reach.

This confinement of the palace family is considered a state necessity, as a preventive to civil wars, in the same way as the destruction of the Uganda princes, after a certain season, is thought necessary for the preservation of peace there.
7th .-- In the morning the Kamraviona called, on the king's behalf, to inquire after my health, and also to make some important communications.
First he was to request a supply of bullets, that the king might fire a salute when Bombay returned from Gani; next, to ask for stimulative medicine, now that he had consumed all I gave him, and gone through the preliminary course; further, to request I would spread a charm over all his subjects, so that their hearts might be inclined towards him, and they would come without calling and bow down at his feet; finally, he wished me to exchange my blood with him, that we might be brothers till death.

I sent the bullets, advised him to wait a day or two for the medicine, and said there was only one charm by which he could gain the influence he required over his subjects--this was, knowledge and the power of the pen.

Should he desire some of my children (meaning missionaries) to come here and instruct his, the thing would be done; but not in one year, nor even ten, for it takes many years to educate children.
As to exchanging by blood with a black man's, it was a thing quite beyond my comprehension; though Rumanika, I must confess, had asked me to do the same thing.