CHAPTER XI

THE KING OF KAZOUNDE IS OFFERED A PUNCH.

It was four o’clock in the afternoon when a loud noise of drums, cymbals, and other instruments of African origin resounded at the end of the principal street.  In all corners of the market-place the animation was redoubled.  Half a day of cries and wrestling had neither weakened the voices nor broken the limbs of these abominable traders.  A large number of slaves still remained to be sold.  The traders disputed over the lots with an ardor of which the London Exchange would give but an imperfect idea, even on a day when stocks were rising.

All business was stopped, and the criers took their breath as soon as the discordant concert commenced.

The King of Kazounde, Moini Loungga, had come to honor the great “lakoni” with a visit.  A numerous train of women, officers, soldiers and slaves followed him.  Alvez and some other traders went to meet him, and naturally exaggerated the attention which this crowned brute particularly enjoyed.

Moini Loungga was carried in an old palanquin, and descended, not without the aid of a dozen arms, in the center of the large square.

This king was fifty years old, but he looked eighty.  Imagine a frightful monkey who had reached extreme old age; on his head a sort of crown, ornamented with leopard’s claws, dyed red, and enlarged by tufts of whitish hair; this was the crown of the sovereigns of Kazounde.  From his waist hung two petticoats made of leather, embroidered with pearls, and harder than a blacksmith’s apron.  He had on his breast a quantity of tattooing which bore witness to the ancient nobility of the king; and, to believe him, the genealogy of Moini Loungga was lost in the night of time.  On the ankles, wrists and arms of his majesty, bracelets of leather were rolled, and he wore a pair of domestic shoes with yellow tops, which Alvez had presented him with about twenty years before.

His majesty carried in his left hand a large stick with a plated knob, and in his right a small broom to drive away flies, the handle of which was enriched with pearls.

Over his head was carried one of those old patched umbrellas, which seemed to have been cut out of a harlequin’s dress.

On the monarch’s neck and on his nose were the magnifying glass and the spectacles which had caused Cousin Benedict so much trouble.  They had been hidden in Bat’s pocket.

Such is the portrait of his negro majesty, who made the country tremble in a circumference of a hundred miles.

Moini Loungga, from the fact of occupying a throne, pretended to be of celestial origin, and had any of his subjects doubted the fact, he would have sent them into another world to discover it.  He said that, being of a divine essence, he was not subject to terrestrial laws.  If he ate, it was because he wished to do so; if he drank, it was because it gave him pleasure.  It was impossible for him to drink any more.  His ministers and his officers, all incurable drunkards, would have passed before him for sober men.