River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1916-05-18
STUFFINC The KING
A Dusky Kongo Monarch Who
Fairly ReveIed In Roast Pig.
He WAS KIND TO HIS WIVES.
Anything on the Menu That Didn't
Tempt His Dainty Taste Was Passed
to Them, but When His Favorite Dish
Came on IL Was All His Very Own.

to Them, but When His Favorite Dish
Came on II Was All His Very Own.
During his residence in the Kongo
town of San Salvador John III. Weeks
had many strange experiences, which
he relates in his book, among the
Primitive Bakongo," but one of the
most entertaining pictures that he
draws of the strange habits and GUS
toms Of the people depicts the king,
whose naivete and childish guileless.
ness are in strong contrast to the char
acteristics of his European contempt
raries.
| Occasionally, says Mr.. Weeks, we in
vited him to dinner, and the piece de
resistance was a sucking pig, which in
| those days we could buy for shilling's
worth of cloth or beads. Although his
house was 400 yards away, he al
ways came in his state hammock, car
ried by six of his headmen. Fortunate
| ly the headmen were strong and in the
prime of life; otherwise the kings
weight would have taxed them too
much.
The hammock was of native cotton,
| grown, dyed and woven in a neighbor-
| ing village. It was covered with red
cloth adorned with tassels and bells,
and canopy was arranged to shield
the rider from the sun. AS there were
no clocks in the palace, we asked our
guest to come at sunset, and no sooner
was the sun below the horizon than we
heard the shouts of the people as they
accompanied the kings hammock to
the station.
AS he got nearer we could hear the
tinkling of the ferret bells on the ham,
mock. the hurried, heavy breathing Of
the hammock carriers and their short,
sharp sentences of direction to one an
other They were not at all sorry to
lower the hammock at our door. where
we stood ready to receive and welcome
him, who. although black, had come in
the most kingly manner he knew and
was certainly very digniied in most of
his ways and words.
The boys quickly put the dinner on
the table, and the king eyed every dish
hungrily. / said to him one day when
/ was visiting him in his courtyard and
we were both in joking mood. do
you know what the poorer class of
English boys do when they are invited
to a feast?"
NO." he said. And as he saw me
hesitate he asked. "Well, what do
they do"
why, they eat very little all day."
I replied, $50 as to have plenty of room
for the feast"
The old man rolled with laughter,
snapped his fingers, slapped his thighs,
and tears came from his eyes as he
said: "Why, white man, that is what /
do, but 1 did not know that anybody
else was cute enough to think of that.
But, Mfumu Weekisi, I am smarter
than those white boys, for don't eat
anything all day when / am coming
to take dinner with you at sunset"
After that could understand the hun
CRY look in his eyes as he watched the
dishes put on the table.
Native provisions of all kinds were
very cheap, and by sacrificing one or
two tins of preserved goods we were
generally successful in working out q
menu of six or seven single courses.
Soup made of fowl and goat bones,
with odd bits of meat and seasoning,
a tin of fresh herrings baked or fried,
a roast fowl, stewed goat, roast suck
ling pig and baked rice pudding with
stewed papaws were our dishes. Our
drinks were lime Juice made from fresh
lines and coffee grown in the district.
The king would squat on the ground,
with a row of five or six favorite wives
Immediately behind him and the six
headmen who carried the hammock
standing against the wall. The king
would take a few SpoonfulS of soup
and pass the rest down with a piece
of bread to his waiting wives, who
would quickly and quietly finish them.
The fish he would eat all up, because
it came from the white mans cOun-
try, while the wives pouted their dis
appointment. We would give him a
liberal share of the fowl, but that was
| so common that after he had selected
the best pieces the rest was finished by
the expectant wives.
Goat came next, but was treated with
as scant courtesy as that bestowed on
the fowl, and meanwhile the old man
would turn his eyes repeatedly toward
| the roasted pig.
When at last that was put before us
we piled his plate with a liberal por-
ton, which rapidly disappeared, while
all the time his wives were making
mouths in the semidarkness. He would
| grunt assent to more when we asked
him, and again we would load his
plate. 1t was the moment for which
he had lived all the long hours of
that day, for he had heard that the
white man had bought pig for dinner.