A NATIVE PROPHET. 1Q1 



" senoga" — one who holds intercourse with the gods. He proba- 

 bly had a touch of insanity, for he was in the habit of retiring no 

 one knew whither, but perhaps into some cave, to remain in a 

 hypnotic or mesmeric state until the moon was full. Then, re- 

 turning to the tribe quite emaciated, he excited himself, as others 

 do who pretend to the prophetic afflatus, until he was in a state 

 of ecstasy. These pretended prophets commence their operations 

 by violent action of the voluntary muscles. Stamping, leaping, 

 and shouting in a peculiarly violent manner, or beating the ground 

 with a club, they induce a kind of fit, and while in it pretend that 

 their utterances are unknown to themselves. Tlapane, pointing 

 eastward, said, " There, Sebituane, I behold a fire : shun it ; it is 

 a fire which may scorch thee. The gods say, go not thither." 

 Then, turning to the west, he said, " I see a city and a nation of 

 black men — men of the water; their cattle are red; thine own 

 tribe, Sebituane, is perishing, and will be all consumed ; thou wilt 

 govern black men, and, when thy warriors have captured red cat- 

 tle, let not the owners be killed ; they are thy future tribe — they 

 are thy city ; let them be spared to cause thee to build. And 

 thou, Ramosinii, thy village will perish utterly. If Mokari re- 

 moves from that village he will perish first, and thou, Ramosinii, 

 wilt be the last to die." Concerning himself he added, " The 

 gods have caused other men to drink water, but to me they have 

 given bitter water of the chukuru (rhinoceros). They call me 

 away myself. I can not stay much longer." 



This vaticination, which loses much in the translation, I have 

 given rather fully, as it shows an observant mind. The policy 

 recommended was wise, and the deaths of the " senoga" and of 

 the two men he had named, added to the destruction of their vil- 

 lage, having all happened soon after, it is not wonderful that Se- 

 bituane followed implicitly the warning voice. The fire pointed 

 to was evidently the Portuguese fire-arms, of which he must have 

 heard. The black men referred to were the Barotse, or, as they 

 term themselves, Baloiana ; and Sebituane spared their chiefs/even 

 though they attacked him first. He had ascended the Barotse 

 valley, but was pursued by the Matebele, as Mosilikatse never 

 could forgive his former defeats. They came up the river in a very 

 large body. Sebituane placed some goats on one of the large isl- 

 ands of the Zambesi as a bait to the warriors, and some men in 



