448 POLYGAMY BURIAL. 



impostors, whom tliey first adore, then curse, and lastly de- 

 stroy." 



Polygamy exists to an almost unlimited extent. A man 

 may have as many wives as he chooses, provided he can pay 

 for such privilege the usual fees, which vary according to 

 the wealth of the husband. 



Like the Damaras, the Bechuanas practice circumcision. 

 From an early age upward, even to manhood, the males are 

 circumcised. Children, however, born of parents previously 

 to their having been operated upon, can not inherit regal 

 power. The ceremony being performed, the youth is anoint- 

 ed, and at once assumes the character, air, and dress of a 

 man. He is also considered fit to carry arms. 



The females have also their " religious" festival about the 

 same age as the boys, and, for a certain period, are under 

 the tuition of matrons, who indoctrinate them in all the 

 duties of wives — passive obedience being especially inculca- 

 ted. As a last ordeal, they are made to carry a piece of 

 heated iron, in order to show that their hands are fit for 

 labor. They are then lubricated with grease ; the lower part 

 of their hair is shaven off, and the remainder profusely be- 

 daubed with a paste of butter and sebilo (dark, shining ochre). 

 They now adopt the usual female dress. " Raised thus from 

 comparative infancy to what they consider womanhood, they 

 view themselves with as much complacency as if they were 

 enrobed in the attire of a daughter of an Eastern potentate. 

 They have reached nearly to a climax in their life, for they 

 expect soon to be married ; to be a mother they consider the 

 chief end of a woman's existence." 



The Bechuanas generally bury their dead. The ceremony 

 of interment, &c., varies in different localities, and is influ- 

 enced by the rank of the deceased ; but the following is a 

 fair specimen of the way in which these obsequies are man- 

 aged. 



On the approaching dissolution of a man, a skin or net 



