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MACKAY AS UNDERTAKER.
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chiefs to let that custom be omitted on the present occasion.

Great credit is due to the chancellor for his firmness and for the good order which he kept throughout the country, owing to which very few lives were lost and very little property destroyed.

The next day the chiefs sent for Mackay, with the request that he would make a coffin for Mutesa. He had already won extraordinary fame by the coffin which he had previously made for the late king's mother, Namasole. He has described the circumstance; and what follows is almost entirely in his own words.

The morning after the death of Mutesa's mother, Mackay and Mr. O'Flaherty had gone to pay their respects to the king. They found all the chiefs with their hands clasped above their heads, roaring and shedding tears with all their might. When they entered, the king bade these chiefs be silent, which they were instantaneously. His majesty then asked Mackay how royalty was buried in England. Mackay endeavoured to describe three royal coffins with cloth coverings, and one of them of lead to preserve the remains. At once the king asked him if he would be undertaker and make the coffins; and, thinking that they would be of ordinary dimensions, Mackay agreed to do so, at which Mutesa was much pleased. Mutesa, however, had no lead, but plenty of copper, which Mackay told him would do well enough.

The court was dismissed, and soon after there arrived at the mission a host of fine bronze trays of Egyptian