SESUTO SONGS AND MUSIC. S^S 



21 other Suto tunes. 12 are clearly pentatonic, one is doubtful, 

 and of the remaining eight only one has any claim to antiquity, 

 and that has probaljly been modernised through the influence 

 of the European scale, showing how late we are in the search. 

 The song is called " Morena" Tlhake " or "King Vulture." 

 This song is full of pathos, telling you to call the majestic bird 

 to feast on the dead, but (rudely translated) the sentiments 

 could be made very other than poetic. The subject is not the 

 field of battle but the remains of a dead dog. A dignitary, who 

 came to Modderpoort the other day, and heard our boys sing, 

 unkindly wrote that the tunes were pretty but the words were 

 about beer. But after all there is a good deal of such subjects 

 in the heroics of Blind Maeonides. Some of the other songs 

 are not without interest or beauty, as " The little old man, he 

 speaks: and I, I speak. Far. far from Sankoe." he says (i.e., 

 probably, his home). Then there is the farewell to the boy 

 bound for the mines, who is told, " Hey, child, you'll stay four 

 months, you son of baggage; you'll stay there sesimane yara " 

 (i.e., six months of the year). Another represents one passing" 

 some old cronies, to whom he sings, " Pour me as little as you 

 will, old lady: whatever you do. don't stint yourselves" — 

 this to a ravishing, slurry tune. As an example of the effect 

 of Bible reading plus the modern scale is a tune built on the 

 common chord to the words " Selina and Bellina are weeping 

 for the Lord." the names being probably a contraction of 

 Salome and Madelena. As for the pentatonic tunes in Suto, I 

 W'Ould like to mention one or two. There is the running song, 

 sung at the double by young warriors in training. It is said 

 to be ancient, dating long before the time of horses, which 

 were introduced about the same time as guns by the Koranna 

 Hottentots (I think it is Dr. Casalis who says that the horse 

 was thought to be the hornless cattle of the nether world, and 

 tue pale riders of like dread origin; the Suto word for horse is 

 from the Dutch, the native " pitsi " being the quagga). This 

 running song then is ancient, and contains the story of one 

 Saole, who is asked as he goes. " U ea kae Saole. he?" He 

 is described in his w^ar-array. I have never heard the whole 

 ballad, but am told that he goes to raid cattle for his marriage, 

 and is taken in the pass by his enemies and slain — a theme 

 worthy of border minstrelsv, and the more suggestive in that 

 the tune resembles the bagpipes and is in the Scotch scale. The 

 likeness of names has made the Damascene raid of Saul of 

 Tarsus a parallel to the native mind, probablv with the help of 

 some early missionary. 



There is a verv vivid piece, of which I could not secure the 

 notes, representing the unsuccessful bombardment of Thaba 

 Bosiu, if I remember right, or some such occasion_ when the 

 Basuto first heard cannon. It reproduces the hissing of the 

 likanono tsa makhooa with thrilling effect. Another song of 

 war runs, "There is no nation which conquers the Scotch." 

 A ridiculouslv vague version of tliis substitutes whitemen for 

 Scotch, and appears to have been made to order for exhibition 

 to white visitors of uncertain nationality. The tribute to the 

 kilt was, I believe, genuine, not to say deserved. I found 



