The Express.
London, England, 1863-12-18 00:00:00

CAPTAIN SPEED AND THE FATTENED

QUEENS.

[From the Journal of the Discovery of the Source of tit
Nik, by Captain SPIKE, issued to-day by Masan. Black-
wood.]
In the afternoon, as I had heard from Musa
that the wives of the king and princes were fattened to
such an extent that they could not stand upright, I paid my
respects to Wei:exert:, the king's eldest brother—who, hay-
ing been born before hie father monied his throne, did
not come in the line of sueoestioo—with the hope of being
able to see for myself the truth of the story. There was
no mistake about it. Oa entering the hot I found the old
man and his chief wife sitting side by side on a bench of
earth strewed over with grass, and partitioned like stalls for
sleeping apartments, whilst in front of them were placed
numerous wooden pots of milk, end, hawing from the
poles that supported the bee-hived shaped hut, a large
collection of bows six feet in length, whilst below them
were tied an even larger collection of spears, intermixed
with a goodly assortment of heavy-headed usages. I was
struck with no small surprise at the way he received me,
as well as with the extraordinary dimensions, yet pleasing
beauty, of the immoderately fat fair one, his wife. She
could not rise ; and so large were her arms that, between
the joints, the flesh hung down like large loose-stuffed
puddings. Then in came their children, all models of the
Abyssinian type of beauty, and as polite in their manners
as thorough-bred gentlemen. They had heard of my
picture-books from the king, and all wished to see them ;
which they no sooner did, to their infinite delight, espe-
cially whet) they recognised any of the animals, than the
subject was turned by my inquiring what they did with
so many milk-pots. This was easily explained by Was,":.
acre himself, who, poiutiag to his wife, said, "This is all
the product of these pots : from early youth upwards we
keep those pots to their mouths, as it is the fashion at
court to have very fat wives." • • • •
After a long and amusing conversation with Bumanika
it) the morning, I called on one of his sisters-in-law, married
to an elder brother, who was born before llsgara ascended
the throne. She was another of those wonders of
obesity, unable to stand or: doting on all fours. I
was desirous to obtain a view of her, and ac-
tually to measure her, an induced her to give me
facilities for doing so, by offering in return to show her a
I bit of my naked legs and arms. The bait took as I
I wished it, and after getting her to sidle and wriggle
into the middle of the hut, I did as I promised, sod
then took her dimensions. Round arm, Ift. llin.;
chest, 41t. 4in. ; thigh, 2ft. 7in. ; calf, Ift. Sin. ;
height, Mt. Sin. All of these are exact exoept the
height, sad I believe I could have obtained this
more accurately if I could have had her laid on the floor.
Not knowing what difficulties I should have to maraud with
in such a piece of engineering. I tried to get her height by
railing her up. This, after infinite exertions on the part of
us both, was accomplished, when she sank down agaio,
fainting, for her blood had rushed into her bead. Mean-
while, the daughter, a lass of sixteen, sat stark-naked be-
fore us, sucking at a millrpot, on which the father kept her
at work by holding a rod is his band, for as fattening is the
i first duty of fashionable female life, it must be duly en-
forced by the rod if neommary. I got up a bit of flirtation
with miry, and induced her to rime and shake hands with
me. Her features were lovely, but her body was as rood
ss a ball.

WEATHER, REPORT.-(THIS DAY.)

FRIDAY, Dim 18, 8 8.11.

&W.
w.
w.s.w.

0
NI
91 o
22 a
22 r
n o
2 e
112 b
22 a
93 a
Itt
it b
U
U
b
b
92 b
22 a
81 e
1 22 b.
20
22 o
ri o
• b