In The "Koha" The Same Respect Is Shown To Age As In Many Other
Of Their Customs.
A younger man, rushing from the ranks
to exercise his wand on the backs of the youths, may be
Himself
the object of chastisement by the older, and, on the occasion referred to,
Sekomi received a severe cut on the leg from one of his gray-haired people.
On my joking with some of the young men on their want of courage,
notwithstanding all the beatings of which they bore marks,
and hinting that our soldiers were brave without suffering so much,
one rose up and said, "Ask him if, when he and I were compelled by a lion
to stop and make a fire, I did not lie down and sleep as well as himself."
In other parts a challenge to try a race would have been given,
and you may frequently see grown men adopting that means
of testing superiority, like so many children.
The sechu is practiced by three tribes only. Boguera is observed
by all the Bechuanas and Caffres, but not by the negro tribes
beyond 20 Deg. south. The "boguera" is a civil rather than a religious rite.
All the boys of an age between ten and fourteen or fifteen
are selected to be the companions for life of one of the sons of the chief.
They are taken out to some retired spot in the forest,
and huts are erected for their accommodation; the old men go out
and teach them to dance, initiating them, at the same time,
into all the mysteries of African politics and government.
Each one is expected to compose an oration in praise of himself,
called a "leina" or name, and to be able to repeat it
with sufficient fluency.
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