They Have Managed, Also, To Give A Comprehensive Name
To The Whites, Viz., Makoa, Though They Can Not Explain The Derivation Of It
Any More Than Of Their Own.
It seems to mean "handsome",
from the manner in which they use it to indicate beauty;
but there is
A word so very like it meaning "infirm", or "weak",
that Burchell's conjecture is probably the right one.
"The different Hottentot tribes were known by names terminating in `kua',
which means `man', and the Bechuanas simply added the prefix Ma,
denoting a nation." They themselves were first known as Briquas,
or "goat-men". The language of the Bechuanas is termed Sichuana;
that of the whites (or Makoa) is called Sekoa.
The Makololo, or Basuto, have carried their powers of generalization
still farther, and arranged the other parts of the same great family
of South Africans into three divisions: 1st. The Matebele, or Makonkobi -
the Caffre family living on the eastern side of the country;
2d. The Bakoni, or Basuto; and, 3d. The Bakalahari, or Bechuanas,
living in the central parts, which includes all those tribes
living in or adjacent to the great Kalahari Desert.
1st. The Caffres are divided by themselves into various subdivisions,
as Amakosa, Amapanda, and other well-known titles. They consider
the name Caffre as an insulting epithet.
The Zulus of Natal belong to the same family, and they are as famed
for their honesty as their brethren who live adjacent to our colonial frontier
are renowned for cattle-lifting. The Recorder of Natal declared of them
that history does not present another instance in which
so much security for life and property has been enjoyed,
as has been experienced, during the whole period of English occupation,
by ten thousand colonists, in the midst of one hundred thousand Zulus.
The Matebele of Mosilikatse, living a short distance south of the Zambesi,
and other tribes living a little south of Tete and Senna,
are members of this same family. They are not known beyond the Zambesi River.
This was the limit of the Bechuana progress north too, until Sebituane
pushed his conquests farther.
2d. The Bakoni and Basuto division contains, in the south,
all those tribes which acknowledge Moshesh as their paramount chief.
Among them we find the Batau, the Baputi, Makolokue, etc.,
and some mountaineers on the range Maluti, who are believed,
by those who have carefully sifted the evidence, to have been at one time
guilty of cannibalism. This has been doubted, but their songs admit the fact
to this day, and they ascribe their having left off the odious practice
of entrapping human prey to Moshesh having given them cattle.
They are called Marimo and Mayabathu, men-eaters, by the rest of the Basuto,
who have various subdivisions, as Makatla, Bamakakana, Matlapatlapa, etc.
The Bakoni farther north than the Basuto are the Batlou, Baperi, Bapo,
and another tribe of Bakuena, Bamosetla, Bamapela or Balaka, Babiriri,
Bapiri, Bahukeng, Batlokua, Baakhahela, etc., etc.; the whole of which tribes
are favored with abundance of rain, and, being much attached to agriculture,
raise very large quantities of grain. It is on their industry
that the more distant Boers revel in slothful abundance,
and follow their slave-hunting and cattle-stealing propensities
quite beyond the range of English influence and law.
The Basuto under Moshesh are equally fond of cultivating the soil.
The chief labor of hoeing, driving away birds, reaping, and winnowing,
falls to the willing arms of the hard-working women; but as the men,
as well as their wives, as already stated, always work,
many have followed the advice of the missionaries, and now use plows and oxen
instead of the hoe.
3d. The Bakalahari, or western branch of the Bechuana family,
consists of Barolong, Bahurutse, Bakuena, Bangwaketse,
Bakaa, Bamangwato, Bakurutse, Batauana, Bamatlaro, and Batlapi.
Among the last the success of missionaries has been greatest.
They were an insignificant and filthy people when first discovered;
but, being nearest to the colony, they have had opportunities of trading;
and the long-continued peace they have enjoyed, through the influence
of religious teaching, has enabled them to amass great numbers of cattle.
The young, however, who do not realize their former degradation,
often consider their present superiority over the less-favored tribes
in the interior to be entirely owing to their own greater wisdom
and more intellectual development.
Chapter 11.
Departure from Linyanti for Sesheke - Level Country - Ant-hills -
Wild Date-trees - Appearance of our Attendants on the March -
The Chief's Guard - They attempt to ride on Ox-back -
Vast Herds of the new Antelopes, Leches, and Nakongs -
The native way of hunting them - Reception at the Villages -
Presents of Beer and Milk - Eating with the Hand -
The Chief provides the Oxen for Slaughter - Social Mode of Eating -
The Sugar-cane - Sekeletu's novel Test of Character -
Cleanliness of Makololo Huts - Their Construction and Appearance -
The Beds - Cross the Leeambye - Aspect of this part of the Country -
The small Antelope Tianyane unknown in the South - Hunting on foot -
An Eland.
Having waited a month at Linyanti (lat. 18d 17' 20" S., long. 23d 50' 9" E.),
we again departed, for the purpose of ascending the river
from Sesheke (lat. 17d 31' 38" S., long. 25d 13' E.). To the Barotse country,
the capital of which is Nariele or Naliele (lat. 15d 24' 17" S.,
long. 23d 5' 54" E.), I went in company with Sekeletu and about
one hundred and sixty attendants. We had most of the young men with us,
and many of the under-chiefs besides. The country between Linyanti
and Sesheke is perfectly flat, except patches elevated only a few feet
above the surrounding level. There are also many mounds where
the gigantic ant-hills of the country have been situated or still appear:
these mounds are evidently the work of the termites. No one who has not seen
their gigantic structures can fancy the industry of these little laborers;
they seem to impart fertility to the soil which has once passed
through their mouths, for the Makololo find the sides of ant-hills
the choice spots for rearing early maize, tobacco, or any thing on which
they wish to bestow especial care.
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