20 PROLONGED DROUGHT. Chap. I- 



intelligence than is to be met with in our own uneducated pea- 

 santry. They are remarkably accurate in their knowledge of 

 cattle, sheep, and goats, knowing exactly the kind of pasturage 

 suited to each ; and they select with great judgment the varieties 

 of soil best suited to different kinds of grain. They are also 

 familiar with the habits of wild animals, and in general are well 

 up in the maxims which embody their ideas of political wisdom. 



The place where we first settled with the Bakwains is called 

 Chonuane, and it happened to be visited, during the first year of 

 our residence there, by one of those droughts which occur from 

 time to time in even the most favoured districts of Africa. 



The belief in the gift or power of rain-making is one of the 

 most deeply-rooted articles of faith in this country. The chief 

 Sechele was himself a noted rain-doctor, and believed in it im- 

 plicitly. He has often assured me that he found it more difficult 

 to give up his faith in that than in anything else which Chris- 

 tianity required him to abjure. I pointed out to him that the 

 only feasible way of watering the gardens was to select some 

 good never-failing river, make a canal, and irrigate the adjacent 

 lands. Tins suggestion was immediately adopted, and soon the 

 whole tribe was on the move to the Kolobeng, a stream about 

 forty miles distant. The experiment succeeded admirably during 

 the first year. The Bakwains made the canal and dam in ex- 

 change for my labour in assisting to build a square house for 

 their chief. They also built their own school under my superin- 

 tendence. Our house at the river Kolobeng, which gave a name 

 to the settlement, was the third which I had reared with my own 

 hands. A native smith taught me to weld iron ; and having im- 

 proved by scraps of information in that line from Mr. Moffat, and 

 also in carpentering and gardening, I was becoming handy at 

 almost any trade, besides doctoring and preaching ; and as my 

 wife could make candles, soap, and clothes, we came nearly up 

 to what may be considered as indispensable in the accomplish- 

 ments of a missionary family in Central Africa, namely, the 

 husband to be a jack-of-all-trades without doors, and the wife a 

 maid-of-all-work within. But in our second year again no rain 

 fell. In the third the same extraordinary drought followed. 

 Indeed, not ten inches of water fell during these two years, and 

 the Kolobeng ran dry ; so many fish were killed that the hyaenas 



