the place where
the bottle had been kept. There he walked about the grass with his arm
up, and jingling the bell to his ear, first on one side and then on the
other, till the track of a hyaena gave him a clue, and in two or three
more steps he found it. A hyaena had carried it into the grass and
dropped it. Bravo for the infallible horn, and well done the king for
his honesty in sending it. Speke gave the king the bottle and gauge,
which delighted him amazingly, and the old doctor, who begged for
_pomba_, got a goat for his trouble."

News reached them soon after this of the death of Budja, one of the
officers who had attended them, and who it was said had died from being
bewitched by a charm put into a pot of _pomba_ by one of Kamrasi's
frontier officers, the poor fellow having evidently been poisoned.

The travellers were now in some anxiety about Bombay, who had not
returned from Gani. They received intelligence that the coronation
formalities of Mtesa were taking place, when upwards of thirty of his
brothers were to be burned to death.

Kamrasi had been presented with a Bible. As soon as he got hold of it,
he began to count the leaves, supposing that each page or leaf
represented one year of time since the beginning of creation. After
getting through a quarter of the book, he shut it up, on being told that
if he desired to ascertain the number more closely he had better count
the words.

Six weeks had been uselessly spent, when at length Bombay returned, his
attendants dressed in cotton jumpers and drawers, presents given them by
Petherick's outposts, though Petherick himself was not there. The
journey to and fro had been performed in fourteen days' actual
travelling, the rest of the time being frittered away by the guides.

Two hundred Turks were stationed at Gani, who were all armed with
elephant-guns, and had killed sixteen elephants.

On this, Speke sent a present to Kamrasi, and prepared for his
departure. The king, however, complained that he had not received
enough, and insisted on having the chronometer. He had himself sent a
present of spears; but Speke refused to accept them unless permission
for his departure was given. The only way indeed to treat these black
potentates is to act with the greatest firmness and determination.

At last the king promised to give them a parting interview, and to send
a large escort to accompany them to Petherick's boats. Several days,
however, passed befo