They Are Familiar With Barter Alone;
And In The Centre Of The Country, Where Gold Is Totally Unknown,
If A Button And Sovereign Were Left To Their Choice,
They Would Prefer The Former On Account Of Its Having An Eye.
In beginning to learn, Motibe seemed to himself in the position of the doctor,
who was obliged to drink
His potion before the patient, to show that
it contained nothing detrimental; after he had mastered the alphabet,
and reported the thing so far safe, Sekeletu and his young companions
came forward to try for themselves. He must have resolved
to watch the effects of the book against his views on polygamy,
and abstain whenever he perceived any tendency, in reading it,
toward enforcing him to put his wives away. A number of men
learned the alphabet in a short time and were set to teach others,
but before much progress could be made I was on my way to Loanda.
As I had declined to name any thing as a present from Sekeletu,
except a canoe to take me up the river, he brought ten fine elephants' tusks
and laid them down beside my wagon. He would take no denial,
though I told him I should prefer to see him trading with Fleming,
a man of color from the West Indies, who had come for the purpose.
I had, during the eleven years of my previous course, invariably abstained
from taking presents of ivory, from an idea that a religious instructor
degraded himself by accepting gifts from those whose spiritual welfare
he professed to seek.
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