196 THE COUET HEEALD. 



CHAPTER IX. 



.Reception at Linyanti. — The court Herald. — Sekeletu obtains the Chieftainship 

 from his Sister. — Mpepe's Plot. — Slave-trading Mambari. — Their sudden Flight. 

 — Sekeletu narrowly escapes Assassination. — Execution of Mpepe. — The Courts 

 of Law. — Mode of trying Offenses. — Sekeletu's Eeason for not learning to read 

 the Bible. — The Disposition made of the Wives of a deceased Chief. — Makololo 

 Women. — They work but little. — Employ Serfs. — Their Drink, Dress, and Orna- 

 ments. — Public Religious Services in the Kotla. — Unfavorable Associations of the 

 place. — Native Doctors. — Proposals to teach the Makololo to read. — Sekeletu's 

 Present. — Reason for accepting it. — Trading in Ivory. — Accidental Fire. — Pres- 

 ents for Sekeletu. — Two Breeds of native Cattle. — Ornamenting the Cattle. — The 

 Women and the Looking-glass. — Mode of preparing the Skins of Oxen for Man- 

 tles and for Shields. — Throwing the Spear. 



The whole population of Linyanti, numbering between six and 

 seven thousand souls, turned out en masse to see the wagons in 

 motion. They had never witnessed the phenomenon before, we 

 having on the former occasion departed by night. Sekeletu, now 

 in power, received us in what is considered royal style, setting 

 before us a great number of pots of boyaloa, the beer of the 

 country. These were brought by women, and each bearer takes 

 a good draught of the beer when she sets it down, by way of 

 "tasting," to show that there is no poison. 



The court herald, an old man who occupied the post also in 

 Sebituane's time, stood up, and after some antics, such as leaping, 

 and shouting at the top of his voice, roared out some adulatory 

 sentences, as, "Don't I see the white man? Don't I see the 

 comrade of Sebituane ? Don't I see the father of Sekeletu ?" — 

 "We want sleep." — "Give your son sleep, my lord," etc., etc. 

 The perquisites of this man are the heads of all the cattle slaugh- 

 tered by the chief, and he even takes a share of the tribute before 

 it is distributed and taken out of the kotla. He is expected to 

 utter all the proclamations, call assemblies, keep the kotla clean, 

 and the fire burning every evening, and when a person is executed 

 in public he drags away the body. 



I found Sekeletu a young man of eighteen years of age, of 



