BASUTO TRIBAL SYSTEM. 279 



If an unmarried girl became pregnant, the father of tfie 

 child had to pay his six head of cattle to her parents ; but, if 

 he married her, the payment was reduced to two head, over 

 and above the regular dowry. There was little, if any, social 

 stigma attached to either of the delinquents in such cases. 



The laws governing family life, inheritance, and marriage, 

 were the same among chiefs and commoners, the only difference 

 being in the nature and extent of the interests involved. The 

 father was the head of the family, but his authority was by no 

 means absolute. Each of his wives had a house, and a kraal 

 belonging to that house — and the father could not use property 

 belonging to one house for the purposes of another. For in- 

 stance he could not marry a son of his first house, with the 

 cattle paid as a dowry for a daughter of the second house, and 

 it was the duty of the brother of each wife {Malome) to see that 

 his sister's rights were respected. 



When the father died, the property of each house belonged 

 to the eldest son of that house, whose duty it was to provide 

 for his own brothers, marry them, and start them in life. 



Besides the property vested in his various houses, the father, 

 especially if a chief, or man of rank, had always property of 

 his own, acquired by inheritance or other means, which he could 

 use as he pleased. At his deatVi all this was inherited by the 

 eldest son of the first wife, and he, during his father's lifetime, 

 used to watch this with a jealous eye, lest, peradventure, the 

 father should be tempted by natural affection to endow unduly 

 the house of some favourite wife. This was often the cause 

 of strife and bad feeling. 



In ruling families the eldest son of each of the three or four 

 principal wives was a chief, but the eldest son of the first wife 

 was the chief. Each had his own village or sphere of influence, 

 and, if things went well, lived contentedly enough under the 

 authority of the elder brother. But it was an authority of 

 a very special and limited kind : they would address him and 

 speak of him as Morena oaka, Moholo oaka (my chief, my elder), 

 with the very greatest respect, but, if he ventured to infringe 

 any of their rights^ they would be quick to resent it, even to 

 the extent of throwing off their allegiance. 



Such, roughly sketched, are some of the salient points of tlic 

 Basuto tribal system and custom. Their law of inheritance 

 was a limited form of primogeniture. As long as they had 

 plenty of room it answered well, making up in freedom and elasticit}' 

 what it lacked in solidarity. It is in a circumscribed country, 

 with a growing population, where it is apt to fail. Ties of 

 family and expediency, as before stated, bound younger brothers, 

 through their mates, to their elder ; but they were not indis- 

 soluble, or strong enough to bind against his will a junior, who 

 thought himself ill-treated, or whose ambition could not brook 

 authority, however mild. It was infinitely preferable to the 

 cast iron system of the Zulus, of one chief absolute and despotic 

 and the rest nowhere. That made for solidarity indeed, but 

 it also made for cruelty, tyranny, and bloodshed without end. 



