Chap. VIII. AN OLD WARRIOR. 203 



stream. The spectators hooted the executioners, calling 

 out to them that they too would soon be carried out and 

 strangled. Occasionally when a man is sent to beat an 

 offender, he tells him his object, returns, and assures the 

 chief he has nearly killed him. The transgressor then 

 keeps for a while out of sight, and the matter is forgotten. 

 The river here teems with monstrous crocodiles, and 

 women are frequently, while drawing water, carried off 

 by these reptiles. 



We met a venerable w r arrior, sole survivor, probably, 

 of the Mantatee host which threatened to invade the 

 colony in 1824. He retained a vivid recollection of their 

 encounter with the Griquas : "As we looked at the men 

 and horses, puffs of smoke arose, and some of us dropped 

 down dead ! " " Never saw anything like it in my life, a 

 man's brains lying in one place and his body in another ! " 

 They could not understand what was killing them ; a ball 

 struck a man's shield at an angle ; knocked his arm out of 

 joint at the shoulder ; and leaving a mark, or burn, as he 

 said, on the shield, killed another man close by. We saw 

 the man with his shoulder still dislocated. Sebetuane was 

 present at the fight, and had an exalted opinion of the 

 power of white people ever afterwards. 



The ancient costume of the Makololo consisted of the 

 skin of a lamb, kid, jackal, ocelot, or other small animal, 

 worn round and below the loins : and in cold weather a 

 kaross, or skin mantle, was thrown over the shoulders. 

 The kaross is now laid aside, and the young men of fashion 

 wear a monkey-jacket and a skin round the hips ; but no 

 trousers, waistcoat, or shirt. The river and lake tribes 

 are in general very cleanly, bathing several times a day. 

 The Makololo women use water rather sparingly, rubbing 

 themselves with melted butter instead : this keeps off 

 parasites, but gives their clothes a rancid odour. One 

 stage of civilization often leads of necessity to another — 



