Chap. V-II. NATIVE DOCTORS. 195 



The native doctors had given the case of Sekeletu 

 up. They 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 ; and on 

 the following day we all three were permitted to see 

 him. He was 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 peculiarity 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. He has the quiet, unassuming manners 

 of his father, Sebituane, speaks distinctly, in a low 

 pleasant voice, and appears to be a sensible man, except 

 perhaps on the subject of his having been bewitched ; 

 and in this, when alluded to, he exhibits as firm a belief 

 as if it were his monomania. " Moriantsiane, 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 us for medicine 

 and medical attendance, but we did not like to take 



under an able sagacious mission, 

 a vast deal might have been 

 made, has suffered the usual fate 

 of African conquests. That fate 

 we deeply deplore ; for, whatever 



other faults the Makololo might 

 justly be charged with, they did 

 not belong to the class who buy 

 and sell each other, and the tribes 

 who have succeeded them do. 



