88 THE TRADITION OF RA'lOLO. 



Satan had thrashed her. I sent for him, and told him : " You 

 were quite right " (because she, when going to church, always 

 left her young child alone to old Satan's care). He never came 

 to church, but yet to the end we were good friends. Ra'lolo is 

 his son. When Mr. Hunt sent Ra'lolo to me to assist me in 

 writing the old Bapedi history I told him of the many tales I had 

 heard of the cannibals,* e.g., that they fattened their captives 

 like cattle, and, when they intended to kill them, made them hold 

 up their arms above the head like horns of cattle. Ra'lolo would 

 have nothing of this, and said that these were mostly fictions ; 

 he would tell me only sober, historic facts. Ra'lolo is still living 

 at Sekukuni's capital : he and one other being the only two men 

 who were against Sekukuni allowing the Lutheran Bapedis 

 to build a church there. Nevertheless, I like the man. 



Ra'lolo's Statement. 



I was born at Phiring (Magalie's), and am about 50 years 

 old. Our Kgoro is called Mapitsing. My father's name was 

 Selai, or Kgoloko. t Our family (Kgoro) is connected with 

 Tulare, the famous old King of the Bapedi. Tulare's father — 

 Moroamotshe — was also the father of Kgoloko, my great grand- 

 father (Kgoloko, Puthi ea throkas, Selai). 



First I shall tell you what the old man told me, when 

 young ; then what I myself have seen. In the oldest times we 

 were at a place called Mapogote or Malakoaneng (a place still 

 called so by the Basuto), not far from Moshesh, Basutoland 

 (source of Vaal River?), in the Highveld, as the name Malakoa- 

 neng shows (which means "amongst the sugarbush"). At 

 that time no rumour of a white face had been heard of. We 

 left there, not after a fight, but were probably tired of the land. 

 The name of our oldest known Chief at that time was Motshe- 

 tabane. Then we and the Bakgatla were still one tribe. We 

 settled at Marapazane (Schildpadfontein), district Pretoria, near 

 Warmbad, Waterberg. 



When Motshe was an old man we left there. We were 

 driven away by the Bakgatla. They said : " Lea re lolcla " (you 

 bewitch us). Our old great-grandmother — Matebele — most 

 beloved wife of Motshe, was the cause of jealousy with the other 

 wives and their childen. They first made mocking songs about 

 Matebele, saying, " Her child cried, when still in her mother's 

 womb." So this child's name was called " Le Lellateng " (you cry 

 inside). They tried to kill this child. We then left them. The 

 Bakgatla, from the other greater sons of Motshe, were then 

 our superiors, which later changed. Even now, when someone 

 greets us " Dumela Mokgatla" we respond. The name Bapedi 

 we took from the country now called Sekukuni's, Bopedi. 



* Not so long ago a middle-aged woman told me she was compelled to 

 eat the roasted arm of her uncle. 



t His name during the persecutions of the first Christians at Mosego. 



