108 DEESS OF THE NATIVES. Chap. V. 



sphere of missionary influence, and could compare the people 

 there with the Christian natives, I came to the conclusion that, 

 if the question were examined in the most rigidly severe or 

 scientific way, the change effected by the missionary movement 

 would be considered unquestionably great. 



We cannot fairly compare these poor people with ourselves, 

 who have an atmosphere of Christianity and enlightened public 

 opinion, the growth of centuries, around us, to influence our 

 deportment ; but let any one from the natural and proper point 

 of view behold the public morality of Griqua Town, Kuruman, 

 Likatlong, and other villages, and remember what even London 

 was a century ago, and he must confess that the Christian mode 

 of treating aborigines is incomparably the best. 



The Griquas and Bechuanas were in former times clad much 

 like the Caffres, if such a word may be used where there is 

 scarcely any clothing at all. A bunch of leather strings about 

 eighteen inches long hung from the lady's waist in front, and a 

 prepared skin of a sheep or antelope covered the shoulders, 

 leaving the breast and abdomen bare : the men wore a patch 

 of skin, about the size of the crown of one's hat, which barely 

 served for the purposes of decency, and a mantle exactly like 

 that of the women. To assist in protecting the pores of the skin 

 from the influence of the sun by day and of the cold by night, 

 all smeared themselves with a mixture of fat and ochre ; the 

 head was anointed with pounded blue mica schist mixed with fat ; 

 and the fine particles of sinning mica falling on the body and on 

 strings of beads and brass rings were considered as higlily orna- 

 mental and fit for the most fastidious dandy. Now, these same 

 people come to church in decent though poor clothing, and behave 

 with a decorum certainly superior to what seems to have been 

 the case in the time of Mr. Samuel Pepys in London. Sunday 

 is well observed, and, even in localities where no missionary lives, 

 religious meetings are regularly held, and children and adults 

 taught to read, by the more advanced of their own fellow- 

 countrymen ; and no one is allowed to make a profession of faith 

 by baptism unless he knows how to read, and understands the 

 nature of the Christian religion. 



The Bechuana Mission has been so far successful that, when 

 coming from the interior, we always felt on reaching Kuruman 



