244 TOWN OF MA-SEKELETU. 



liked the English, " because they thrash them for selling slaves." 

 I was silent about pork ; though, had they seen me at a hippopot- 

 amus two days afterward, they would have set me down as being 

 as much a heretic as any of that nation ; but I ventured to tell 

 them that I agreed with the English, that it was better to let the 

 children grow up and comfort their mothers when they became 

 old, than to carry them away and sell them across the sea. This 

 they never attempt to justify ; " they want them only to cultivate 

 the land, and take care of them as their children." It is the same 

 old story, justifying a monstrous wrong on pretense of taking care 

 of those degraded portions of humanity which can not take care 

 of themselves ; doing evil that good may come. 



These Arabs, or Moors, could read and write their own lan- 

 guage readily ; and, when speaking about our Savior, I admired 

 the boldness with which they informed me "that Christ was a 

 very good prophet, but Mohammed was far greater." And with 

 respect to their loathing of pork, it may have some foundation in 

 their nature ; for I have known Bechuanas, who had no prejudice 

 against the wild animal, and ate the tame without scruple, yet, 

 unconscious of any cause of disgust, vomit it again. The Bechu- 

 anas south of the lake have a prejudice against eating fish, and 

 allege a disgust to eating any thing like a serpent. This may 

 arise from the remnants of serpent- worship floating in their minds, 

 as, in addition to this horror of eating such animals, they some- 

 times render a sort of obeisance to living serpents by clapping 

 their hands to them, and refusing to destroy the reptiles ; but 

 in the case of the hog they are conscious of no superstitious 

 feeling. 



Having parted with our Arab friends, we proceeded down the 

 Marile till we re-entered the Leeambye, and went to the town 

 of Ma-Sekeletu (mother of Sekeletu), opposite the island of Lo- 

 yela. Sekeletu had always supplied me most liberally with food, 

 and, as soon as I arrived, presented me with a pot of boiled 

 meat, while his mother handed me a large jar of butter, of which 

 they make great quantities for the purpose of anointing their 

 bodies. He had himself sometimes felt the benefit of my way 

 of putting aside a quantity of the meat after a meal, and had 

 now followed my example by ordering some to be kept for me. 

 According to their habits, every particle of an ox is devoured at 



