SICKNESS OF SEKELETU. 397 



could not cure him, and pronounced the disease incurable. An old 

 doctress from the Manyeti tribe had come to see what she could 

 do for him, and on her skill he now hung his last hopes. She 

 allowed no one to see him except his mother and uncle, making 

 entire seclusion from society an essential condition of the much 

 longed-for cure. He sent, notwithstanding, for the doctor, who 

 found him on the following day sitting in a covered wagon, 

 which was enclosed by a high wall of close-set reeds ; his face 

 was only slightly disfigured by the thickening of the skin in 

 parts, where the leprosy had passed over it ; and the only pecu- 

 liarity about his hands was the extreme length of his finger- 

 nails, which, however, was nothing very much out of the way, 

 as all the Makololo gentlemen wear them uncommonly long. 

 She was firmly convinced that he had been bewitched. " Mori- 

 antsiane," said he, " my aunt's husband, tried the bewitching 

 medicine first on his wife, and she is leprous, and so is her head- 

 servant ; then, seeing that it succeeded, he gave me a stronger 

 dose in the cooked flesh of a goat, and I have had the disease 

 ever since. They have lately killed Ponwane, and, as you see, 

 are now killing me." Ponwane had died of fever a short time 

 previously. Sekeletu asked for medicine and medical attend- 

 ance, but the doctor did not like to take the case out of the 

 hands of the female physician already employed, it being bad 

 policy to appear to undervalue any of the profession ; and she, 

 being anxious to go on with her remedies, said, " She had not 

 given him up yet, but would try for another month and if he 

 was not cured by that time she would hand him over to the 

 white doctors." She was, however, induced to resign her place 

 earlier, and the superior skill of her successors soon alleviated 

 the sufferings of the young chief considerably, but it had already 

 become too deeply rooted, and they could only lament in their 

 hearts that the glory which the wise Sebituane had bequeathed 

 to his people should go down under the inefficiency of a chief 

 whose vices had bound him in cords so painful and so fatal. 



But incidents of deeper interest even than the illness of Seke- 

 letu and the disaffection of his people had been wrought into 

 the history of Linyanti since Dr. Livingstone was there. It 

 will be remembered they had expressed a desire that a mission- 

 ary might come and live with them, and had committed them- 



