288 THE CHIEF'S PERQUISITES. Chap. XIV. 



ered by his people, and tribute of corn, beer, honey, wild 

 fruits, hoes, paddles, and canoes, from the Barotse, Manyeti, 

 Matlotlora, and other subject tribes. The principal revenue, 

 however, is derived from ivory. All the ivory of the country, 

 in theory, belongs to the Chief, and the tusks of every 

 elephant killed are placed at his disposal. This game-law 

 at first sight seems more stringent than that of the Portu- 

 guese, and of the tribes adjacent to them, where only one tusk 

 belongs to Government, and the hunter retains the other. 

 But here the Chief is expected to be generous, and, as a 

 father among his children, to share the proceeds of the ivory 

 with his people. They say, " Children require the guidance 

 of their fathers, so as not to be cheated by foreigners." This 

 reconciles them to the law. The upper classes, too, receive 

 the lion's share of the profits from the elephant-hunt without 

 undergoing much of the toil and danger ; and the subject 

 tribes get the flesh, which is all they ever had, and no one 

 appears to have any wish to change the established custom. 

 Our own men, however, had often discussed the rights of 

 labour during their travels ; and, having always been paid by 

 us for their work, had acquired certain new ideas, which 

 rather jostled against this old law. They thought it unjust 

 to be compelled to give up both tusks to the Chief: bad as 

 the Portuguese were, they were not so oppressive as that ; 

 they allowed the hunter one of the tusks ; Sekeletu's law was 

 wrong ; they wished he would repeal it. This usage doubtless 

 preserves the elephants, though that is not the object in view. 

 Pitsane shot a few on his return from Angola, and then gave 

 up hunting altogether. 



Moselekatse, too, claims all the ivory in his country, and 

 allows no stranger even to hunt the elephant. A gentleman 

 from Natal, ignorant of this prohibition, went with the inten- 



