POLICY AND POWER OF LECHOLETEBE. 421 



vility he might have shown to strangers in former times, 

 much can not be said in favor of his hospitality at the pres- 

 ent day. During my whole stay at the Lake, I never received 

 from him so much as a handful of corn or a cup of milk. 

 On the contrary, he^ while we ourselves were almost starv- 

 ing, was in the habit of begging food daily from me. 



If any thing takes his fancy — no matter what, it may be 

 the shirt you wear — he has no scruple in asking you for it 

 at once. Upon your refusal, he will, perhaps, leave you for 

 a time, but is sure to return and renew his request with the 

 greatest pertinacity, never ceasing his solicitations till, by his 

 vexatious importunity, he has succeeded in getting the object 

 of his desire — a line of policy the success of which he seems 

 fully to understand. 



The arrival of several wagons at the Lake at the same 

 time puts him in the highest glee. On these occasions he 

 never fails to make his rounds, craving bread from one, sugar 

 from another, coffee jGrom a third, meat from a fourth, and 

 so on. 



The traders, however, know how to take advantage of this 

 weakness in his character, and often make him pay dearly 

 for such articles as may captivate his fancy ; for instance, I 

 have known a man to get a good-sized bull-elephant tusk for 

 three common copper drinking-cups !* 



Lecholetebe possesses great power over his people, when 

 he chooses to exercise it ; but I am inclined to think their 

 subjection is attributable more to superstition and the force 

 of custom than to any real regard for his person. Gener- 

 .'illy speaking, he is not of a cruel disposition ; but that he 

 holds human life in very light estimation, the following in- 

 cident, which came under my own immediate notice, serves 

 to show. 



* When the lake was first discovered, a man told me that he ob- 

 tained, in exchange for a musket, twelve hundred pounds of ivor}*, 

 worth, at the least, £240 sterling ! 



