GOVERNMENT AND LANGUAGE. 199 new toy. This trait of Mtesa's character accounts < ...

. . . . . 1 for his changes of religious profession. He is crafty, j and knows well how to swim with the stream of popular opinion. He is very superstitious, and if he> dreams of any of the gods of the country, he takes it as an omen of ill, and immediately offers human sacrifices, sometimes to the number of several hundreds, to appease the anger of the offended deity. He is, however, too shrewd and intelligent' to believe in many of the grosser superstitions which find credit among his people.

He has great veneration for the memory of Capt.

Speke, who left behind him a high character for manliness and integrity, of which subsequent travellers have enjoyed the benefits. Mtesa labours however, under the great disadvantage of being surrounded by a crowd of worthless sycophants, who pay him the most fulsome flattery, but who would depose him without the least compunction if they could gain anything by it. In his younger days ' he proved himself brave and warlike, and, spite of his many cruelties, seems to have a strong hold on the affections of the lower classes.

His treatment of individual Europeans depends very largely on their treatment of him ; a firm yet courteous demeanour he always respects, and any traveller who will behave in this way to him, and who will not unnecessarily obtrude his differences of opinion, nor insist on them too strongly, and above