246 HEATHENISM. 



could not say that all our dancers were affected by it, and gave an 

 answer which, I ought to be ashamed to own, did not raise some 

 of our young countrywomen in the estimation of the Makololo. 



As Sekeletu had been waiting for me at his mother's, we left 

 the town as soon as I arrived, and proceeded down the river. 

 Our speed with the stream was very great, for in one day we went 

 from Litofe to Gonye, a distance of forty-four miles of latitude ; 

 and if we add to this the windings of the river, in longitude the 

 distance will not be much less than sixty geographical miles. At 

 this rate we soon reached Sesheke, and then the town of Linyanti. 



I had been, during a nine weeks' tour, in closer contact with 

 heathenism than I had ever been before ; and though all, including 

 the chief, were as kind and attentive to me as possible, and there 

 was no want of food (oxen being slaughtered daily, sometimes ten 

 at a time, more than sufficient for the wants of all), yet to endure 

 the dancing, roaring, and singing, the jesting, anecdotes, grumbling, 

 quarreling, and murdering of these children of nature, seemed 

 more like a severe penance than any thing I had before met with 

 in the course of my missionary duties. I took thence a more in- 

 tense disgust at heathenism than I had before, and formed a greatly 

 elevated opinion of the latent effects of missions in the south, among 

 tribes which are reported to have been as savage as the Makololo. 

 The indirect benefits which, to a casual observer, lie beneath the 

 surface and are inappreciable, in reference to the probable wide 

 diffusion of Christianity at some future time, are worth all the 

 money and labor that have been expended to produce them. 



