Usually lie in one direction, and your smoke goes in another.
God alone can command the clouds. Only try and wait patiently;
God will give us rain without your medicines.
R. D. Mahala-ma-kapa-a-a!! Well, I always thought white men were wise
till this morning. Who ever thought of making trial of starvation?
Is death pleasant, then?
M. D. Could you make it rain on one spot and not on another?
R. D. I wouldn't think of trying. I like to see the whole country green,
and all the people glad; the women clapping their hands,
and giving me their ornaments for thankfulness, and lullilooing for joy.
M. D. I think you deceive both them and yourself.
R. D. Well, then, there is a pair of us (meaning both are rogues).
The above is only a specimen of their way of reasoning, in which,
when the language is well understood, they are perceived to be
remarkably acute. These arguments are generally known,
and I never succeeded in convincing a single individual of their fallacy,
though I tried to do so in every way I could think of. Their faith
in medicines as charms is unbounded. The general effect of argument
is to produce the impression that you are not anxious for rain at all;
and it is very undesirable to allow the idea to spread
that you do not take a generous interest in their welfare.
An angry opponent of rain-making in a tribe would be looked upon
as were some Greek merchants in England during the Russian war.
The conduct of the people during this long-continued drought
was remarkably good. The women parted with most of their ornaments
to purchase corn from more fortunate tribes. The children scoured the country
in search of the numerous bulbs and roots which can sustain life,
and the men engaged in hunting. Very great numbers of the large game,
buffaloes, zebras, giraffes, tsessebes, kamas or hartebeests,
kokongs or gnus, pallahs, rhinoceroses, etc., congregated at some fountains
near Kolobeng, and the trap called "hopo" was constructed,
in the lands adjacent, for their destruction. The hopo consists of two hedges
in the form of the letter V, which are very high and thick near the angle.
Instead of the hedges being joined there, they are made to form a lane
of about fifty yards in length, at the extremity of which a pit is formed,
six or eight feet deep, and about twelve or fifteen in breadth and length.
Trunks of trees are laid across the margins of the pit, and more especially
over that nearest the lane where the animals are expected to leap in,
and over that farthest from the lane where it is supposed
they will attempt to escape after they are in.
