They Build Their Huts Around His,
And The Greater The Number Of Children, The More His Importance Increases.
Hence Children Are Esteemed One Of The Greatest Blessings,
And Are Always Treated Kindly.
Near the centre of each circle of huts
there is a spot called a "kotla", with a fireplace; here they work, eat,
or sit and gossip over the news of the day.
A poor man attaches himself
to the kotla of a rich one, and is considered a child of the latter.
An under-chief has a number of these circles around his;
and the collection of kotlas around the great one in the middle of the whole,
that of the principal chief, constitutes the town. The circle of huts
immediately around the kotla of the chief is composed of
the huts of his wives and those of his blood relations.
He attaches the under-chiefs to himself and his government by marrying,
as Sechele did, their daughters, or inducing his brothers to do so.
They are fond of the relationship to great families.
If you meet a party of strangers, and the head man's relationship
to some uncle of a certain chief is not at once proclaimed by his attendants,
you may hear him whispering, "Tell him who I am." This usually involves
a counting on the fingers of a part of his genealogical tree,
and ends in the important announcement that the head of the party
is half-cousin to some well-known ruler.
Sechele was thus seated in his chieftainship when I made his acquaintance.
On the first occasion in which I ever attempted to hold
a public religious service, he remarked that it was the custom of his nation,
when any new subject was brought before them, to put questions on it;
and he begged me to allow him to do the same in this case.
On expressing my entire willingness to answer his questions, he inquired
if my forefathers knew of a future judgment. I replied in the affirmative,
and began to describe the scene of the "great white throne,
and Him who shall sit on it, from whose face the heaven and earth
shall flee away," &c. He said, "You startle me: these words
make all my bones to shake; I have no more strength in me;
but my forefathers were living at the same time yours were, and how is it
that they did not send them word about these terrible things sooner?
They all passed away into darkness without knowing whither they were going."
I got out of the difficulty by explaining the geographical barriers
in the North, and the gradual spread of knowledge from the South,
to which we first had access by means of ships; and I expressed
my belief that, as Christ had said, the whole world would yet be enlightened
by the Gospel. Pointing to the great Kalahari desert,
he said, "You never can cross that country to the tribes beyond;
it is utterly impossible even for us black men, except in certain seasons,
when more than the usual supply of rain falls, and an extraordinary
growth of watermelons follows.
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