THE "BOGUERA." 165 



dance, the boys' backs are seamed with wounds and weals, the 

 scars of which remain through life. This is intended to harden 

 the young soldiers, and prepare them for the rank of men. After 

 this ceremony, and after killing a rhinoceros, they may marry a 

 wife. 



In the "koha" the same respect is shown to age as in many 

 other of their customs. A younger man, rushing from the ranks 

 to exercise his wand on the backs of the youths, may be him- 

 self the object of chastisement by the older, and, on the occasion 

 referred to, Sekomi received a severe cut on the leg from one of 

 his gray-haired people. On my joking with some of the young 

 men on then: want of courage, notwithstanding all the beatings 

 of which they bore marks, and hinting that our soldiers were 

 brave without suffering so much, one rose up and said, "Ask 

 him if, when he and I were compelled by a lion to stop and make 

 a fire, I did not lie down and sleep as well as himself." In other 

 parts a challenge to try a race would have been given, and you 

 may frequently see grown men adopting that means of testing 

 superiority, like so many children. 



The sechu is practiced by three tribes only. Boguera is ob- 

 served by all the Bechuanas and Caffres, but not by the negro 

 tribes beyond 20° south. The "boguera" is a civil rather than 

 a religious rite. All the boys of an age between ten and four- 

 teen or fifteen are selected to be the companions for life of one 

 of the sons of the chief. They are taken out to some retired 

 spot in the forest, and huts are erected for their accommodation ; 

 the old men go out and teach them to dance, initiating them, 

 at the same time, into all the mysteries of African politics and 

 government. Each one is expected to compose an oration in 

 praise of himself, called a "leina" or name, and to be able to 

 repeat it with sufficient fluency. A good deal of beating is 

 required to bring them up to the required excellency in different 

 matters, so that, when they return from the close seclusion in 

 which they are kept, they have generally a number of scars 

 to show on their backs. These bands or regiments, named 

 mepato in the plural and mopato in the singular, receive par- 

 ticular appellations ; as, the Matsatsi — the suns ; the Mabusa — 

 the rulers ; equivalent to our Coldstreams or Enniskillens ; and, 

 though living in different parts of the town, they turn out at the 



