Chap. XIII. BELIEF IN WITCHCRAFT. 277 



given, the Makololo had secured all the ivory in the Batoka 

 country to the east, by purchasing it with hoes, the Ben- 

 guela traders found it unprofitable to go thither for slaves. 

 They assured us that "without ivory the trade in slaves did 

 not pay. In this way, and by the orders of Sekeletu, an 

 extensive slave-mart was closed. These orders were never 

 infringed except secretly. We discovered only two or three 

 cases of their infraction. 



Fashion is as despotic in Sesheke and Linyanti as in 

 London and Paris. The ladies will not wear beads which 

 are out of fashion, however pretty they may be. The Chief 

 is a great horse-fancier, and has invested pretty largely in 

 horse-flesh; but he has been very unlucky, nearly all his 

 horses having died soon after being purchased. A party 

 was sent last year to Benguela with ivory to purchase five 

 horses, said to have been imported from Lisbon; all the 

 animals died on the road, and the grieved drivers brought 

 the five melancholy tails, and laid them before the Chief. 

 " A native Portuguese at Bihe, one of the sleeping-stations, 

 bewitched them ; they saw him look at the horses and touch 

 them, and were sure that he bewitched them then, for they 

 died soon after!" The universal belief in witchcraft, of 

 which we ourselves have but recently got rid, is a great 

 barrier to the progress of civilization. Two horses left by 

 the Doctor in 1853 had lived, in spite of hard usage and 

 perpetual hunting; this was, in the native opinion, because 

 he loved the Makololo; while others, from whom they pur- 

 chased horses, hated them and bewitched their horses. The 

 treatment the poor beasts received could scarcely fail to 

 prove fatal. A jolly set of young men, the Chief's bodyguard, 

 had a rare sort of horse-racing ; one mounted with neither 

 saddle, bit, nor bridle, and, spreading out both arms, dashed 



