Life amongst the Makololo--Return journey--Native hospitality--Acanoe 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.The spectators hooted the executioners, calling out to them that they too would soon be carried out and strangled.Occasionally when a man is sent to beat an offender, he tells him his object, returns, and assures the chief he has nearly killed him.The transgressor then keeps for a while out of sight, and the matter is forgotten.The river here teems with monstrous crocodiles, and women are frequently, while drawing water, carried off by these reptiles.
We met a venerable warrior, sole survivor, probably, of the Mantatee host which threatened to invade the colony in 1824.He retained a vivid recollection of their encounter with the Griquas:"As we looked at the men and horses, puffs of smoke arose, and some of us dropped down dead!""Never saw anything like it in my life, a man's brains lying in one place and his body in another!"They could not understand what was killing them; a ball struck a man's shield at an angle; knocked his arm out of joint at the shoulder; and leaving a mark, or burn, as he said, on the shield, killed another man close by.We saw the man with his shoulder still dislocated.Sebetuane was present at the fight, and had an exalted opinion of the power of white people ever afterwards.
The ancient costume of the Makololo consisted of the skin of a lamb, kid, jackal, ocelot, or other small animal, worn round and below the loins:and in cold weather a kaross, or skin mantle, was thrown over the shoulders.The kaross is now laid aside, and the young men of fashion wear a monkey-jacket and a skin round the hips; but no trousers, waistcoat, or shirt.The river and lake tribes are in general very cleanly, bathing several times a day.The Makololo women use water rather sparingly, rubbing themselves with melted butter instead:this keeps off parasites, but gives their clothes a rancid odour.One stage of civilization often leads of necessity to another--the possession of clothes creates a demand for soap; give a man a needle, and he is soon back to you for thread.
This being a time of mourning, on account of the illness of the chief, the men were negligent of their persons, they did not cut their hair, or have merry dances, or carry spear and shield when they walked abroad.The wife of Pitsane was busy making a large hut, while we were in the town:she informed us that the men left house-building entirely to the women and servants.A round tower of stakes and reeds, nine or ten feet high, is raised and plastered; a floor is next made of soft tufa, or ant-hill material and cowdung.This plaster prevents the poisonous insects, called tumpans, whose bite causes fever in some, and painful sores in all, from harbouring in the cracks or soil.The roof, which is much larger in diameter than the tower, is made on the ground, and then, many persons assisting, lifted up and placed on the tower, and thatched.A plastered reed fence is next built up to meet the outer part of the roof, which still projects a little over this fence, and a space of three feet remains between it and the tower.We slept in this space, instead of in the tower, as the inner door of the hut we occupied was uncomfortably small, being only nineteen inches high, and twenty-two inches wide at the floor.A foot from the bottom it measured seventeen inches in breadth, and close to the top only twelve inches, so it was a difficult matter to get through it.The tower has no light or ventilation, except through this small door.The reason a lady assigned for having the doors so very small was to keep out the mice!
The children have merry times, especially in the cool of the evening.
One of their games consists of a little girl being carried on the shoulders of two others.She sits with outstretched arms, as they walk about with her, and all the rest clap their hands, and stopping before each hut sing pretty airs, some beating time on their little kilts of cowskin, others making a curious humming sound between the songs.Excepting this and the skipping-rope, the play of the girls consists in imitation of the serious work of their mothers, building little huts, making small pots, and cooking, pounding corn in miniature mortars, or hoeing tiny gardens.The boys play with spears of reeds pointed with wood, and small shields, or bows and arrows; or amuse themselves in making little cattle-pens, or in moulding cattle in clay; they show great ingenuity in the imitation of various-shaped horns.Some too are said to use slings, but as soon as they can watch the goats, or calves, they are sent to the field.We saw many boys riding on the calves they had in charge, but this is an innovation since the arrival of the English with their horses.
