14 SECHELE. Chap. I. 



head-man's connection with a chief is not proclaimed b}' his 

 attendants, you may hear him whispering, "Tell him who I 

 am." This usually involves a counting on the fingers of a 

 part of his genealogical tree ; and ends in the important 

 announcement that he is half-cousin to some well-known ruler. 

 The government is patriarchal, each man being, by virtue of 

 paternity, chief of his own children, and the greater their 

 number the more his importance increases. The towns are 

 formed of numerous circle of huts, and near the centre of 

 each circle there is a spot called a " kotla," with a fireplace ; 

 here they work, eat, or sit and gossip over the news of the 

 day. A poor man attaches himself to the kotla of a rich one, 

 and is considered a child of the latter. The circle of an 

 underchief is girt by a number of subsidiary circles, and in 

 the middle of all is the great circle of the principal chief, 

 composed of the huts of his wives and blood relations. 

 — On the first occasion in which I ever attempted to hold a 

 public religious service, Sechele remarked that it was the 

 custom of his nation to put questions when any new subject 

 was brought before them. He then inquired if my forefathers 

 knew of a future judgment. I replied in the affirmative, and 

 began to describe the scene of the "great white throne, and 

 Him who shall sit on it, from whose face the heaven and earth 

 shall flee away," &c. "You startle me," he replied; " these 

 words make all my bones to shake ; I have no more strength 

 in me : but my forefathers were living at the same time yours 

 were, and how is it that they did not send them word about 

 these terrible things sooner ? They all passed away into 

 darkness without knowing whither they were going." I 

 explained the geographical barriers in the North, and the 

 gradual spread of knowledge from the South, to which we 

 first had access by means of ships ; adding my belief that, as 

 Christ had declared, the whole world would be enlightened 

 by the Gospel. Pointing to the great Kalahari desert, he 

 replied, " You never can cross that country to the tribes 

 beyond; it is utterly impossible even for us black men, except 

 in certain seasons, when more than the usual supply of rain 

 falls, and an extraordinary growth of water-melons follows." 



As soon as he had an opportunity of learning, he set 

 himself to read with such close application that, from being 



