Chap. VIII. EFFECTS OF MISSIONARY EFFORTS. 157 



CHAPTEE VIII. 



Effects of missionary efforts — Belief in the Deity — Ideas of the Bakwains 

 on religion — Departure from their country — Salt-pans — Sour curd — 

 Kchokotsa — Bitter waters — Thirst suffered by the wild animals — 

 Wanton cruelty in hunting — Ntwetwe — Mowana-trees — Their ex- 

 traordinary vitality — The Mopane-tree — The Morala — The Bushmen 

 — Their superstitions — Elephant-hunting — Superiority of civilised over 

 barbarous sportsmen — The chief Kaisa — His fear of responsibility — 

 Beauty of the country at Unku — The Mohouono bush — Severe labour 

 in cutting our way — Party seized with fever — Escape of our cattle — - 

 Bakwain mode of recapturing them — Vagaries of sick servants — Dis- 

 covery of grape-bearing vines — An ant-eater — Difficulty of passing 

 through the forest — Sickness of my companion — The Bushmen — 

 Their mode of destroying lions — Poisons — The solitary hill — A pic- 

 turesque valley — Beauty of the country — Arrive at the Sanshureh 

 river — The flooded prairies — A pontooning expedition — A night 

 bivouac — The Chobe — Arrive at the village of Moremi — Surprise of 

 the Makololo at our sudden appearance — Cross the Chobe on our way to 

 Linyanti. 



The Bakalahari, who live at Motlatsa wells, have always been 

 very friendly to us, and listen attentively to instruction conveyed 

 to them in their own tongue. It is, however, difficult to give 

 an idea to an European of the little effect teaching produces, 

 because no one can realize the degradation to which their minds 

 have been sunk by centuries of barbarism and hard struggling for 

 the necessaries of life : like most others, they listen with respect 

 and attention, but, when we kneel down and address an unseen 

 Being, the position and the act often appear to them so ridicu- 

 lous that they cannot refrain from bursting into uncontrollable 

 laughter. After a few services they get over this tendency. I 

 was once present when a missionary attempted to sing among a 

 wild heathen tribe of Bechuanas, who had no music in then com- 

 position ; the effect on the risible faculties of the audience was 

 such that the tears actually ran down their cheeks. Nearly all 

 their thoughts are directed to the supply of their bodily wants, 

 and this has been the case with the race for ages. If asked, then, 

 what effect the preaching of the Gospel has at the commence- 

 ment on such individuals, I am unable to tell, except that some 



