82 KEKOMl'S VIEW OF EXTORTION. 



formed that in one part of India even the tame buffaloes 

 feel their superiority to some wild animals, for they have 

 been seen to chase a tiger up the hills, bellowing as if they 

 enjoyed the sport. Lions never go near any elephants ex- 

 cept the calves, which, when young, are sometimes torn 

 by them ; every living thing retires before the lordly ele- 

 phant, yet a full-grown one would be an easier prey than 

 the rhinoceros; the lion rushes off at the mere sight of 

 this latter beast. 



"When we reached the Bamangwato, the chief, Sekomi, 

 was particularly friendly, collected all his people to the 

 religious services we held, and explained his reasons for 

 compelling some Englishmen to pay him a horse. " They 

 would not sell him any powder, though they had plenty ; 

 so he compelled them to give it and the horse for nothing. 

 He would not deny the extortion to me ; that would be 

 ' boherehere/ (swindling.)" He thus thought extortion 

 better than swindling. 1 could not detect any difference 

 in the morality of the two transactions; but Sekomi's ideas 

 of honesty are the lowest I have met with in any Bechu- 

 ana chief, and this instance is mentioned as the only ap- 

 proach to demanding payment for leave to pass that T have 

 met with in the south. In all other cases the difficulty has 

 been to get a chief to give us men to show the way, and 

 the payment has only been for guides. Englishmen have 

 always very properly avoided giving that idea to the native 

 mind which we shall hereafter find prove troublesome, that 

 payment ought to be made for passage through a country. 



January 28. — Passing on to Letloche, about twenty 

 miles beyond the Bamangwato, we found a fine supply of 

 water. This is a point of so much interest in that country 

 that the first question we ask of passers-by is, " Have you 

 had water?" the first inquiry a native puts to a fellow- 

 countryman is, " Where is the rain ?" and, though they are 

 by no means an untruthful nation, the answer generally is, 

 " I don't know : there is none : we are killed with hunger 

 and by the sun." If news is asked for, they commence 



