The Oldest Individual I Ever Met
Boasted He Had Seen Eleven Sets Of Boys Submit To The Boguera.
Supposing Him
To have been fifteen when he saw his own, and fresh bands
were added every six or seven years, he
Must have been about forty
when he saw the fifth, and may have attained seventy-five or eighty years,
which is no great age; but it seemed so to them, for he had now doubled
the age for superannuation among them. It is an ingenious plan
for attaching the members of the tribe to the chief's family,
and for imparting a discipline which renders the tribe easy of command.
On their return to the town from attendance on the ceremonies of initiation,
a prize is given to the lad who can run fastest, the article being placed
where all may see the winner run up to snatch it. They are then
considered men (banona, viri), and can sit among the elders in the kotla.
Formerly they were only boys (basimane, pueri). The first missionaries
set their faces against the boguera, on account of its connection
with heathenism, and the fact that the youths learned much evil,
and became disobedient to their parents. From the general success
of these men, it is perhaps better that younger missionaries
should tread in their footsteps; for so much evil may result
from breaking down the authority on which, to those who can not read,
the whole system of our influence appears to rest, that innovators
ought to be made to propose their new measures as the Locrians did new laws -
with ropes around their necks.
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