This thought pleased her much and she thereupon took another drink,
which practically emptied the bottle. Of course I do not know that she
had consumed the first half of that bottle, but she certainly drank
enough in our presence to intoxicate any normal person. It was
strange, but it did not seem to have much effect on her. When she
spoke and drank, I noticed that her teeth were perfect. This, at the
age of more than one hundred years, is a great tribute to the Swazi
custom of cleaning the teeth with charcoal or sand after each meal.
There was nothing private about our interview. While we talked indunas
came and went and the women were always in the hut. In addition, both
Lomwazi and Debeseembie were on hand all the time. After we had
exhausted all our compliments and small talk, Tuys broached the
subject of permission to take pictures of Sebuza's coronation.
Here we ran against what seemed to be an insuperable obstacle. It was
impossible to make either the queen or Lomwazi understand what I
wanted. They had no conception whatever of what a photograph meant and
motion-pictures were entirely beyond their comprehension. Both Tuys
and I tried in every way to make them understand, but it was hopeless.
Finally I decided that the only thing to do would be to take a picture
of Lomwazi or the old queen and show Lomwazi what I was talking about.
I persuaded him to get Labotsibeni to allow herself to be carried
outside the hut into the sunlight, and there I took a picture of her.
Then I photographed Lomwazi, Debeseembie, and a group of others. I
explained to them that I would show them the pictures the next day, as
I hoped to have them developed and printed by that time. After the
picture-taking we went back inside the hut, and then the old queen
became more friendly and told me her troubles. It seems she suffered
with rheumatism in the shoulders and back. This was due to the fact
that her upper body was usually bare and that she laid in the draught
between the openings of the hut. When cold, she would cover herself
with a magnificent fur rug, but this did not help her rheumatism much.
On hearing of her aches and pains, Tuys's evil genius gave him an
inspiration and he proceeded to get me into a pretty pickle.
"Nkosikaas, you are in great good luck that we came to see you," he
told her. "Mzaan Bakoor is a great white witch-doctor and makes the
muti (medicine) that cures such pains as you have. He will make the
muti for you and will cure you!"
Labotsibeni appeared much cheered by this suggestion. I was not,
however. I had no medicines with me and would gladly have kicked Tuys
for making the offer. Shortly after this we left the queen, with the
understanding that I was going to make the medicine that would cure
her rheumatism and would bring it to her as soon as it was ready.
When we got back to our camp I blessed Tuys with a real Boer outburst
of profanity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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