Chap. XIII. SEKELETU'S MESSENGER. 2G7 



smallpox at Tette, three years ago, were to go back to 

 Moshobotwane, and lie would sprinkle medicine over tliem, 

 to drive away the infection, and prevent it spreading in 

 the tribe. Mochokotsa was told to say to Sekeletu that the 

 disease was known of old to white men, and we even knew 

 the medicine to prevent it ; and, were there any danger now, 

 we should be the first to warn him of it. Why did not he go 

 himself to have Moshobotane sprinkle medicine to drive away 

 his leprosy. We were not afraid of his disease, nor of the 

 fever that had killed the teachers and many Makololo at 

 Linyanti. As this attempt at quarantine was evidently 

 the suggestion of native doctors to increase their own im- 

 portance, we added that we had no food, and would hunt 

 next day for game, and the day after ; and, should we be 

 still ordered purification by their medicine, we should then 

 return to our own country. 



The message was not all of our dictation, our companions 

 interlarded it with their own indignant protests, and said some 

 strong things in the Tette dialect about these " doctor things " 

 keeping them back from seeing their father; when to their 

 surprise Mochokotsa told them he knew every word they 

 were saying, as he was of the tribe Bazizulu, and defied 

 them to deceive him by any dialect, either of the Mashona 

 on the east, or of the Mambari on the west. Mochokotsa 

 then repeated our message twice, to be sure that he had it 

 every word, and went back again. These Chiefs' messen- 

 gers have most retentive memories ; they carry messages of 

 considerable length great distances, and deliver them almost 

 word for word. Two or three usually go together, and when 

 on the way the message is rehearsed every night, in order 

 that the exact words may be kept to. One of the native 

 objections to learning to write is, that these men answer the 

 purpose of transmitting intelligence to a distance as well 



