One At Kuruman Is A Full-Grown Woman,
And A Man Having This Peculiarity Of Skin Was Met With In The Colony.
Their Bodies Are Always Blistered On Exposure To The Sun,
As The Skin Is More Tender Than That Of The Blacks.
The Kuruman woman
lived some time at Kolobeng, and generally had on her bosom and shoulders
the remains of large blisters.
She was most anxious to be made black,
but nitrate of silver, taken internally, did not produce its usual effect.
During the time I resided at Mabotsa, a woman came to the station
with a fine boy, an Albino. The father had ordered her to throw him away,
but she clung to her offspring for many years. He was remarkably intelligent
for his age. The pupil of the eye was of a pink color, and the eye itself
was unsteady in vision. The hair, or rather wool, was yellow,
and the features were those common among the Bechuanas.
After I left the place the mother is said to have become tired of living apart
from the father, who refused to have her while she retained the son.
She took him out one day, and killed him close to the village of Mabotsa,
and nothing was done to her by the authorities. From having met with
no Albinos in Londa, I suspect they are there also put to death.
We saw one dwarf only in Londa, and brands on him showed
he had once been a slave; and there is one dwarf woman at Linyanti.
The general absence of deformed persons is partly owing to their destruction
in infancy, and partly to the mode of life being a natural one,
so far as ventilation and food are concerned. They use but few
unwholesome mixtures as condiments, and, though their undress exposes them
to the vicissitudes of the temperature, it does not harbor vomites.
It was observed that, when smallpox and measles visited the country,
they were most severe on the half-castes who were clothed. In several tribes,
a child which is said to "tlola", transgress, is put to death.
"Tlolo", or transgression, is ascribed to several curious cases.
A child who cut the upper front teeth before the under was always put to death
among the Bakaa, and, I believe, also among the Bakwains. In some tribes,
a case of twins renders one of them liable to death; and an ox, which,
while lying in the pen, beats the ground with its tail, is treated
in the same way. It is thought to be calling death to visit the tribe.
When I was coming through Londa, my men carried a great number of fowls,
of a larger breed than any they had at home. If one crowed before midnight,
it had been guilty of "tlolo", and was killed. The men often carried them
sitting on their guns, and, if one began to crow in a forest, the owner
would give it a beating, by way of teaching it not to be guilty of crowing
at unseasonable hours.
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