52 LIFE OF DA V1D LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



long way to the eastward. In the forenoon I accompanied Sechele to his 

 kraal, situated in the centre of the town, and alongside of it stood respectively 

 the kraals of his wives, which were five in number. These kraals were neatly 

 built, and were of a circular form, the walls and floors being smoothly plastered 

 with a composition of clay and cow dung, and secured from the weather by a 

 fine and well-constructed thatch of rank-dry grass. Each kraal was sur- 

 rounded by an area enclosed with a strong impenetrable fence 6 feet in 

 height. The town was built on a gentle slope on the northern side of a broad 

 extensive strath, throughout the whole extent of which lay wide fields and 

 gardens enclosed with hedges of the wait-a-bit thorn. 



" A short time previous to my arrival, a rumour having reached Sechele 

 that he was likely to be attacked by the emigrant Boers, he suddenly resolved 

 to secure his city with a wall of stones, which he at once commenced erecting. 

 It was now completed, entirely surrounding the town, with loopholes at 

 intervals all along, through which to play upon the advancing enemy with 

 the muskets which he had resolved to purchase from hunters and traders like 

 myself. 



" I was duly introduced to the five queens, each of whose wigwams I 

 visited in succession. These ladies were of goodly stature and comely in 

 their appearance ; they all possessed a choice assortment of karosses of 

 various descriptions, and their persons were adorned with a profusion of 

 ornaments of beads and brass and copper wire. Sechele professed, and was 

 believed by his tribe, to be a skilful rain-maker." 



" . . . The Griquas taking advantage of the superstitions of the 

 Bechuanas, often practice on their credulity, and, a short time before I visited 

 Sechele, a party of Griquas, who were hunting in his territory, had obtained 

 from him several valuable karosses in barter for a little sulphur, which they 

 represented as a most effectual medicine (charm) for guns, having assured 

 Sechele that by rubbing a small quantity on their hands before proceeding to 

 the fields they would assuredly obtain the animal they hunted. It happened, 

 in the course of my converse with the chief, that the subject turned upon ball- 

 practice, when, probably relying on the power of his medicine, the chief 

 challenged me to shoot against him for a considerable wager, stipulating, at 

 the same time, that his three brothers were to be permitted to assist him in 

 the competition. The chief staked a couple of valuable karosses against a 

 large measure filled with my gun-powder, and we then at once proceeded to 

 the waggon, where the match was to come off, followed by a number of the 

 tribe. Whilst Sechele was loading his gun, I repaired to the fore-chest of the 

 waggon, when, observing that I was watched by several of the natives, I 

 proceeded to rub my hands with sulphur, which was instantly reported to the 

 chief, who directly joined me, and, clapping me on the back, entreated me to 

 give him a little of my medicine for his gun, which I of course told him he 



