188 MEDICAL PEACTICE. Chap. IX. 



The service consisted of reading a small portion of the Bible and 

 giving an explanatory address, usually short enough to prevent 

 weariness or want of attention. So long as we continue to hold 

 services in the kotla, the associations of the place are unfavourable 

 to solemnity; hence it is always desirable to have a place of 

 worship as soon as possible : and it is of importance too to treat 

 such place with reverence, as an aid to secure that serious atten- 

 tion which religious subjects demand. Tins will appear more 

 evident when it is recollected that, in the very spot where we had 

 been engaged in acts of devotion, half an hour after, a dance 

 would be got up ; and these habits cannot be at first opposed 

 without the appearance of assuming too much authority over 

 them. It is always unwise to hurt their feelings of independence. 

 Much greater influence will be gained by studying how you may 

 induce them to act aright, with the impression that they are 

 doing it of their own free will. Our services having necessarily 

 been all in the open air, where it is most difficult to address 

 large bodies of people, prevented my recovering so entirely from 

 the effects of clergyman's sore throat as I expected, when my 

 uvula was excised at the Cape. 



To give an idea of the routine followed for months together, 

 on other days as well as on Sundays, I may advert to my habit 

 of treating the sick for complaints which seemed to surmount 

 the skill of their own doctors. I refrained from going to any one 

 unless his own doctor wished it, or had given up the case. Tins led 

 to my having a selection of the severer cases only, and prevented 

 the doctors being offended at my taking their practice out of 

 their hands. When attacked by fever myself, and wishing to 

 ascertain what their practices were, I could safely intrust myself 

 in their hands on account of their well-known friendly feelings. 



The plan of showing kindness to the natives in their bodily 

 ailments secures their friendship ; this is not the case to the same 

 degree in old missions, where the people have learned to look 

 upon relief as a right, a state of things that sometimes happens 

 among ourselves at home. Medical aid is therefore most valuable 

 in young missions, though at all stages it is an extremely valuable 

 adjunct to other operations. 



I proposed to teach the Makololo to read, but, for the reasons 

 mentioned, Sekeletu at first declined ; after some weeks, however, 

 Motibe, his father-in-law, and some others determined to brave 



