46 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. in. 



contrasted in a characteristic passage of a private letter, 

 with the experience of others : — 



" The doctor and the rainmaker among these people are one and 

 the same person. As I did not like to be behind my professional 

 brethren, I declared I could make rain too, not however by enchant- 

 ments like them, but by leading out their river for irrigation. The 

 idea pleased mightily, and to work we went instanter. Even the 

 chief's own doctor is at it, and works like a good fellow, laughing 

 heartily at the cunning of the ' foreigner ' who can make rain so. We 

 have only one spade, and this is without a handle ; and yet by means 

 of sticks sharpened to a point we have performed all the digging of a 

 pretty long canal. The earth was lifted out in ' gowpens ' and 

 carried to the huge dam we have built in karosses (skin cloaks), 

 tortoise-shells, or wooden bowls. We intended nothing of the 

 ornamental in it, but when we came to a huge stone, we were forced 

 to search for a way round it. The consequence is, it has assumed a 

 beautifully serpentine appearance. This is, I believe, the first instance 

 in which Bechuanas have been got to work without wages. It was 

 with the utmost difficulty the earlier missionaries got them to do any- 

 thing. The missionaries solicited their permission to do what they 

 did, and this was the very way to make them show off their airs, for 

 they are so disobliging ; if they perceive any one in the least depen- 

 dent upon them, they immediately begin to tyrannise. A more mean 

 and selfish vice certainly does not exist in the world. I am trying a 

 different plan with them. I make my presence with any of them a 

 favour, and when they show any impudence, I threaten to leave them, 

 and if they don't amend, I put my threat into execution. By a bold 

 free course among them I have had not the least difficulty in manag- 

 ing the most fierce. They are in one sense fierce, and in another the 

 greatest cowards in the world. A kick would, I am persuaded, quell 

 the courage of the bravest of them. Add to this the report which 

 many of them verily believe, that I am a great wizard, and you will 

 understand how I can with ease visit any of them. Those who do 

 not love, fear me, and so truly in their eyes am I possessed of super- 

 natural power, some have not hesitated to affirm I am capable of even 

 raising the dead ! The people of a village visited by a French 

 brother actually believed it. Their belief of my powers, I suppose, 

 accounts too for the fact that I have not missed a single article either 

 from the house or wagon since I came amongst them, and this, 

 although all my things lay scattered about the room, while crammed 

 with patients." 



It was unfortunate that the teacher whom Living- 

 stone stationed with Bubi's people was seized with 

 a violent fever, so that he was obliged to bring him 



