540 Major Alfred St. Hill Gibbons [March 15, 



out and is handed along the line, each attendant saluting by clapping 

 his hands before touching the royal crockery. Rising only so far as 

 is necessary, the table waiter places it before the king, removes the 

 cover, and Zambesi fried fish is handed round. Then comes roast 

 wild fowl — goose, duck, teal, or other bird. The Marotse eat the 

 flesh of no domestic bird or animal save beef. They know not why ; 

 it is a time-honoured custom. The bread is excellent, made of 

 wheaten flour, prepared from grain grown in the king's gardens from 

 imported corn. The third course is usually curded milk eaten with 

 cream and sugar or preserved Californian fruit, to be followed by 

 biscuits and a cup of tea. 



You will probably ask, " How comes Lewanika, who until four 

 years ago saw probably less of white men than so many other native 

 rulers, to be so far in advance of his peers ? " The answer is that 

 two definite causes have contributed towards this most praiseworthy 

 result — two causes which apart one from the other would have proved 

 equally futile and useless. The first is to be found in the natural 

 character of the man ; the second, in outside influence affecting his 

 thought and developing his instincts. Of ancient lineage, he and his 

 ancestors have ruled not only their own people, but other contiguous 

 tribes for many generations. That rule for a considerable period at 

 least has been in advance of the usual monarchical despotism which 

 has raised powerful black empires in Africa to live for a day to the 

 detriment and insecurity of subject and alien alike, only to fall like 

 a pack of cards when a weak ruler takes the reins of power. In 

 Marotseland there exists a definite constitution — unwritten, but real. 

 The eldest sister of each succeeding king shares the royal pre- 

 rogative. No great state measure can be legalised without her 

 assent, and as her power is co-terminal with her brother's kingship 

 it is her interest to strengthen him on his throne. The king is 

 advised by great officers of state, and any momentous proposal, such 

 as the making of peace or war, is exhaustively discussed in open 

 council. 



The country is ruled on feudal principles : some districts are 

 governed by hereditary chiefs, others by deputed governors selected 

 from members of the royal family. These again are subdivided into 

 sub-districts and so forth. Tribute is collected annually and for- 

 warded to the king, and at his court feudatory chiefs from every 

 quarter of his vast dominions of 225,000 square miles — Great Britain 

 is 81,090 — are to be seen paying their visits of homage to their 

 sovereign. 



Chiefs are tried for any offence with which they may be charged 

 by a court of their peers. I have myself watched one such trial 

 with considerable interest, and was much struck by the liberality of 

 the proceedings. The presiding chief — the king's brother-in-law, 

 with a first grade colleague on right and left, supported by some fifty 

 chiefs of the second grade — briefly charged the prisoners, who sub- 

 mitted arguments in defence of their conduct. Then the junior 



