DISPOSAL OF CHIEF'S WIDOWS. 203 



with only one wife, like Sechele." It was of little use to urge 

 that the change of heart implied a contentment with one wife 

 equal to his present complacency in polygamy. Such a prefer- 

 ence after the change of mind could not now be understood by 

 him any more than the real, unmistakable pleasure of religious 

 services can by those who have not experienced what is known 

 by the term the "new heart." I assured him that nothing was 

 expected but by his own voluntary decision. "No, no ; he wanted 

 always to have five wives at least." I liked the frankness of Se- 

 keletu, for nothing is so wearying to the spirit as talking to those 

 who agree with every thing advanced. 



Sekeletu, according to the system of the Bechuanas, became 

 possessor of his father's wives, and adopted two of them ; the 

 children by these women are, however, in these cases, termed 

 brothers. When an elder brother dies, the same thing occurs in 

 respect of his wives ; the brother next in age takes them, as 

 among the Jews, and the children that may be born of those 

 women he calls his brothers also. He thus raises up seed to his 

 departed relative. An uncle of Sekeletu, being a younger brother 

 of Sebituane, got that chieftain's head- wife or queen : there is 

 always one who enjoys this title. Her hut is called the great 

 house, and her children inherit the chieftainship. If she dies, a 

 new wife is selected for the same position, and enjoys the same 

 privileges, though she may happen to be a much younger woman 

 than the rest. 



The majority of the wives of Sebituane were given to influen- 

 tial under-chiefs ; and, in reference to their early casting off the 

 widow's weeds, a song was sung, the tenor of which was that the 

 men alone felt the loss of their father Sebituane, the women were 

 so soon supplied with new husbands that their hearts had not 

 time to become sore with grief. 



The women complain because the proportions between the 

 sexes are so changed now that they are not valued as they de- 

 serve. The majority of the real Makololo have been cut off by 

 fever. Those who remain are a mere fragment of the people 

 who came to the north with Sebituane. Migrating from a very 

 healthy climate in the south, they were more subject to the 

 febrile diseases of the valley in which we found them than the 

 black tribes they conquered. In comparison with the Barotse, 



