538 Major Alfred St. Hill Gibbons [March 15, 



maximum width of half an inch. Kegardless of size, these stems are 

 torn up, bound together and carried into camp. It would appear 

 that even the care with which the native collects the smallest root 

 does not suffice to exterminate the plant, for three years after every 

 sign of rubber has been obliterated from a district, the little plant 

 is flourishing once more. Apparently the smallest root left in the 

 ground is sufficient to renew the plant. Once in camp the stems are 

 subjected to seven processes before the rubber is completely separated 

 from the fibre and ready for export. 



1. They are cut into lengths of about 18 inches and stacked till 

 quite dry. 



2. Soaked in water for ten days. 



3. Hammered on a block with a wooden mallet until the fibres 

 separate. 



4. Dried in the sun. 



5. Hammered once more until the rubber congeals. 



6. Boiled and cleaned of fibre. 



7. Washed in cold water. 



It is then tied up in bundles of strips, and eventually finds its 

 way to European markets. 



Towards the end of June 1899 I was in Lialui, the capital of 

 Marotseland, paying my third and last visit to Lewanika. I cannot 

 pass without saying a few words about this exceptional native ruler 

 and his people. About 250 years ago, the Aiilui, the forefathers of 

 the Marotse of to-day, invaded the broad, long plain known as the 

 Burotse, and, finding rich pasture, settled there. Prior to this invasion 

 the middle Kabompo had been their home ; part of the tribe re- 

 maining behind still exist under the name of Balakwakwa. 



There is little doubt but that they originally migrated from the 

 far north, though Lewanika, from whom I gleaned most of the past 

 history of his tribe, has but a hazy idea of what occurred prior to 

 the Kabompo settlement. The language no doubt will give an im- 

 portant clue, but no white man as yet has had an opportunity of 

 studying it, for the people usually converse in Sekololo, a Sesuto 

 dialect, only using their original language when they wish to make 

 a remark "aside." My friend, Major Coryndon, recently appointed 

 first administrator of Marotseland, gives me an instance of a South 

 African native, who had spent a few years in Mashonaland, under- 

 standing Serotse from his knowledge of the Mashona dialect. There 

 are other ethnological facts pointing to a connection between these two 

 tribes which have been construed into evidence that the Marotse are 

 an offshoot of the so-called Mashona, and entered Burotse from the 

 south. 



The later evidence I have been able to collect rather points to 

 the fact that the two tribes were in some way connected prior to the 

 migratory move from the north, which I believe ethnologists are 

 agreed took place in the case of the Mashonas and most other South 

 African tribes. I may say the Marotse and Mashona are very 



