106 EXTENSIVE CULTIVATION OF LAND. 



feed all the strangers who come on airy special business to 

 him and take up their abode in his kotla. 



The Makololo cultivate a large extent of land around 

 their villages. Those of them who are real Basutos still 

 retain the habits of that tribe, and may be seen going out 

 with their wives with their hoes in hand, — a state of things 

 never witnessed at Kolobeng, or among any other Be- 

 chuana or Caffre tribe. The great chief Moshesh affords 

 an example to his people annually, by not only taking the hoe 

 in hand, but working hard with it on certain, public occasions. 

 His Basutos are of the same family with the Makololo to 

 whom I refer. The younger Makololo, who have been 

 accustomed from their infancy to lord it over the conquered 

 Makalaka, have unforttmately no desire to imitate the 

 agricultural tastes of their fathers, and expect their sub- 

 jects to perform all the manual labor. They are the aris- 

 tocracy of the country, and once possessed almost unlimited 

 power over their vassals. Their privileges were, however, 

 much abridged by Sebituane himself. 



The tribes which Sebituane subjected in this great 

 country pass by the general name of Makalaka. The Ma- 

 kololo were composed of a great number of other tribes, 

 as well as these central negroes. The nucleus of the whole 

 were Basuto, who came with Sebituane from a compara- 

 tively cold an 1 hilly region in the south. When he con- 

 quered various tribes of the Bechuanas, as Bakwains, 

 Bangwaketze, Bamangwato, Batauana, &c, he incorpo- 

 rated the young of these tribes into his own. Great mor- 

 tality by fever having taken place in the original stock, he 

 wisely adopted the same plan of absorption on a large scale 

 with the Makalaka. So we found him with even the sons 

 of the chiefs of the Barotse closely attached to his person : 

 and they say to this day, if any thing else but natural 

 death had assailed their father, every one of them would 

 have laid down his life in his defence. One reason for their 

 strong affection was their emancipation by the decree of 

 Sebituane, "all are children of the chief." 



