File:Ten years in Equatoria; (1898) (14777518831).jpg

Identifier: tenyearsinequato00casa (find matches)
Title: Ten years in Equatoria;
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Casati, Gaetano, 1838-1902 Clay, J. Randolph Landor, I. Walter Emin Pasha, 1840-1892
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Publisher: London : F. Warne and co.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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s their right hip (held by their hand under the armpit), and herds of cows were on the road proceeding northwards I reached the square in front of the king's residence, and was told by a hanassura^ that the Sovereign could not receive me at that moment as he was busy making preparations for the journey of his wives and children towards Mruli, on account of the appearance of a Waganda army on the borders. The long procession of large and small caravans occupied three hours in issuing from the king's palace, armed men preceding and following each section of it. - In the centre of the column was a palanquin, made of ox hide, fixed on two poles, upon which one of the royal wives sat wrapped in a bright coloured mantle of peculiar pattern, surrounded by the women of the household and by female slaves carrying provisions and kitchen utensils; some leading little children by the hand, or dragging a dog or recalcitrant goat. It was a scene of deafening uproar; greetings and songs, confused beating of drums,
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MOVING THE KINGS FAMILY. 279 shaking hands, and faces saddened by transitory weeping, that was suddenly succeeded by the habitual smile. A crowd gathered at the king's door, and a cry of astonishment was uttered by everybody, as a woman, almost a shapeless mass of flesh, with immense limbs, and small eyes, sitting on a sort of sedan-chair, larger than the preceding one, and supported by stouter poles, was being carried across the royal threshold by four stalwart men. She was one of King Chua's obese women. In the Courts at Uganda and Unyoro, the possession of obese wives is considered a thing worthy of the royal splendour. Such a luxury is considered as the emblem of wealth and as of extra-ordinary comeliness, for the possession of whom the monarch is particularly ambitious and greatly envied. This corpulency is attained by a special diet, regularly administered both as regards time and quantity. The accumulation of fat gradually proceeds so as to render the person unable to stand up; those who

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