All The Dishes, Baskets, Stools, And Canoes Are Made
By The Black Tribes Called Manyeti And Matlotlora.
The houses are
built by the women and servants.
The Makololo women are vastly
superior to any we have yet seen. They are of a light warm brown
complexion, have pleasant countenances, and are remarkably quick of
apprehension. They dress neatly, wearing a kilt and mantle, and have
many ornaments. Sebituane's sister, the head lady of Sesheke, wore
eighteen solid brass rings, as thick as one's finger, on each leg,
and three of copper under each knee; nineteen brass rings on her left
arm, and eight of brass and copper on her right, also a large ivory
ring above each elbow. She had a pretty bead necklace, and a bead
sash encircled her waist. The weight of the bright brass rings round
her legs impeded her walking, and chafed her ankles; but, as it was
the fashion, she did not mind the inconvenience, and guarded against
the pain by putting soft rag round the lower rings.
Justice appears upon the whole to be pretty fairly administered among
the Makololo. A headman took some beads and a blanket from one of
his men who had been with us; the matter was brought before the
chief, and he immediately ordered the goods to be restored, and
decreed, moreover, that no headman should take the property of the
men who had returned. In theory, all the goods brought back belonged
to the chief; the men laid them at his feet, and made a formal offer
of them all; he looked at the articles, and told the men to keep
them. This is almost invariably the case. Tuba Mokoro, however,
fearing lest Sekeletu might take a fancy to some of his best goods,
exhibited only a few of his old and least valuable acquisitions.
Masakasa had little to show; he had committed some breach of native
law in one of the villages on the way, and paid a heavy fine rather
than have the matter brought to the Doctor's ears. Each carrier is
entitled to a portion of the goods in his bundle, though purchased by
the chief's ivory, and they never hesitate to claim their rights; but
no wages can be demanded from the chief, if he fails to respond to
the first application.
Our men, accustomed to our ways, thought that the English system of
paying a man for his labour was the only correct one, and some even
said it would be better to live under a government where life and
labour were more secure and valuable than here. While with us, they
always conducted themselves with propriety during Divine service, and
not only maintained decorum themselves, but insisted on other natives
who might be present doing the same. When Moshobotwane, the Batoka
chief, came on one occasion with a number of his men, they listened
in silence to the reading of the Bible in the Makololo tongue; but,
as soon as we all knelt down to pray, they commenced a vigorous
clapping of hands, their mode of asking a favour. Our indignant
Makololo soon silenced their noisy accompaniment, and looked with
great contempt on this display of ignorance. Nearly all our men had
learned to repeat the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed in their
own language, and felt rather proud of being able to do so; and when
they reached home, they liked to recite them to groups of admiring
friends. Their ideas of right and wrong differ in no respect from
our own, except in their professed inability to see how it can be
improper for a man to have more than one wife. A year or two ago
several of the wives of those who had been absent with us petitioned
the chief for leave to marry again. They thought that it was of no
use waiting any longer, their husbands must be dead; but Sekeletu
refused permission; he himself had bet a number of oxen that the
Doctor would return with their husbands, and he had promised the
absent men that their wives should be kept for them. The impatient
spouses had therefore to wait a little longer. Some of them,
however, eloped with other men; the wife of Mantlanyane, for
instance, ran off and left his little boy among strangers.
Mantlanyane was very angry when he heard of it, not that he cared
much about her deserting him, for he had two other wives at Tette,
but he was indignant at her abandoning his boy.
CHAPTER VIII.
Life amongst the Makololo - Return journey - Native hospitality - A
canoe voyage on the Zambesi.
While we were at Sesheke, an ox was killed by a crocodile; a man
found the carcass floating in the river, and appropriated the meat.
When the owner heard of this, he requested him to come before the
chief, as he meant to complain of him; rather than go, the delinquent
settled the matter by giving one of his own oxen in lieu of the lost
one. A headman from near Linyanti came with a complaint that all his
people had run off, owing to the "hunger." Sekeletu said, "You must
not be left to grow lean alone, some of them must come back to you."
He had thus an order to compel their return, if he chose to put it in
force. Families frequently leave their own headman and flee to
another village, and sometimes a whole village decamps by night,
leaving the headman by himself. Sekeletu rarely interfered with the
liberty of the subject to choose his own headman, and, as it is often
the fault of the latter which causes the people to depart, it is
punishment enough for him to be left alone. Flagrant disobedience to
the chief's orders is punished with death. A Moshubia man was
ordered to cut some reeds for Sekeletu: he went off, and hid himself
for two days instead. For this he was doomed to die, and was carried
in a canoe to the middle of the river, choked, and tossed into the
stream.
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