323 SOUTHERN AFRICA. 



on the ground, chatting and exchanging pipes with the lowest 

 of his people. Although, of course, their manners can 

 hoast no great refinement, they are neither boisterous noi 

 vulgar ; but a frank and easy deportment distinguishes all 

 classes. Industry is held in honour ; the chiefs tend and 

 even milk the covins, while the women build the houses, cul- 

 tivate the ground, and prepare clothes and furniture. On 

 one occasion they gave good proof of their honesty ; for, 

 when the traveller's cattle had run away and mingled with 

 immense herds of their own, they sought them out and 

 brought them back to him. In begging, however, they are 

 most ceaseless and importunate. At Mr. Burchell's first 

 entrance they observed a certain degree of ceremony, and 

 only one solitary cry for tobacco was heard ; but this feel- 

 ing of delicacy or decorum soon gave way. Mattivi himself 

 made a private request that the presents intended for him 

 should not be seen by the people at large, by whom they 

 would soon be all begged away. They seemed to have more 

 pride in what they procured by solicitation than in a thing 

 of greater value if received as a spontaneous gift. There 

 Was hardly any appearance of police ; even murder passed 

 with impunity, though among themselves it was not fre- 

 quent. They had no temples, and nothing which Mr. Bur- 

 chell thinks can be called religious worship ; but, in return, 

 they had every form of superstition, which is generally the 

 sole substitute for reUgion in unenlightened societies. 



The last visiter to Lattakoo was Mr. Thompson, who, in 

 1823, found that city in a state of great danger and alarm. 

 Rumours poured in of an immense host of black warriors 

 coming from the north and the east, who were said to be 

 plundering and destroying every thing before them. They 

 had already sacked Kureechane ; and being repulsed from 

 Melita, capital of the Wanketzens, were marching directly 

 upon Old Lattakoo. whence, it was apprehended, they would 

 advance to the modern city. It was added that they were 

 cannibals, and were led by a giantess with one eye ; but, 

 amid all this exaggeration and falsehood, the reality of the 

 danger was undoubted. The Boshuanas immediately sum- 

 moned a peetso, and formed the manly resolution of going 

 out to meet the invader ; but all who knew them were aware 

 that they would fight only by ambuscade and under cover, 

 and would take to flight as soon as the enemy should make 



