178 THE COURT HERALD. Chap. IX. 



CHAPTEE IX. 



Reception at Linyanti — The court herald — Sekeletu obtains the chieftain- 

 ship from his sister — Mpepe's plot — Slave-trading Mambari — Their 

 sudden flight — Sekeletu narrowly escapes assassination — Execution of 

 Mpepe — The courts of law — Mode of trying offences — Sekeletu's 

 reason for not learning to read the Bible — The disposition made of the 

 wives of a deceased chief — Makololo women — They work but little — 

 Employ serfs — Their drink, dress, and ornaments — Public religious 

 services in the kotla — Unfavourable associations of the place — Native 

 doctors — Proposal to teach the Makololo to read — Sekeletu's present 

 : — Reason for accepting it — Trading in ivory — Accidental fire — Pre- 

 sents for Sekeletu — Two breeds of native cattle — Ornamenting the cattle 

 — The women and the looking-glass — Mode of preparing the skins of 

 oxen for mantles and for shields — Throwing the spear. 



The whole population of Linyanti, numbering between six and 

 seven thousand souls, turned out en masse to see the waggons in 

 motion. They had never witnessed the phenomenon before, we 

 having on the former occasion departed by night. Sekeletu, now 

 in power, received us in what is considered royal style, setting 

 before us a great number of pots of boyaloa, the beer of the 

 country. These were brought by women, and each bearer takes 

 a good draught of the beer when she sets it down, by way of 

 " tasting," to show that there is no poison. 



The court herald, an old man who occupied the post also in 

 Sebituane's time, stood up, and after some antics, such as leaping, 

 and shouting at the top of his voice, roared out some adulatory 

 sentences, as, " Don't I see the white man ? Don't I see the 

 comrade of Sebituane ? Don't I see the father of Sekeletu ? " — 

 " We want sleep " — " Give your son sleep, my lord," &c. &c. 

 The perquisites of this man are the heads of all the cattle 

 slaughtered by the chief, and he even takes a share of the tribute 

 before it is distributed and taken out of the kotla. He is ex- 

 pected to utter all the proclamations, call assemblies, keep the 

 kotla clean, and the fire burning every evening, and when a 

 person is executed in public he drags away the body. 



I found Sekeletu a young man of eighteen years of age, of 



