DWELLING HOUSES IN A TREE. 89 



him from the rest, would place him in a tract of country where he would 

 be always in his power. He would return them their cattle to live on, give 

 them a daughter or relative to wife, and administer his own laws. This 

 liberal plan, unlike that adopted by other tribes, combined with a judicious 

 and uniform treatment, inspired the conquered people with such confidence in, and 

 devotion and reverence for their new chief, that they generally soon preferred 

 his government to the former. In this manner amalgamation took place, and 

 the original tribe of Basutos are now, perhaps, the least of the whole 

 population ; and the climate not being congenial to their former habits, they 

 have become the most effeminate of the races under Sekeletu's sway." 



The Matabele are very much dreaded by the Bechuanas, and, indeed, by 

 all the neighbouring tribes. They are very blood-thirsty, and when they 

 surprise a village, massacre all the old and middle-aged of both sexes, carrying 

 the young into captivity. No Matabele is looked upon as being a man until 

 he has slain an enemy, and his standing as a warrior is regulated by the 

 number of men he has slain. They sell their captives to the half-caste 

 Portuguese dealers in human flesh, who come up the Zambesi. 



Moselekatse, the chief of the Matabele, a warrior nearly as renowned as 

 Sebituane — who had succesfully resisted his arms — whose name was a terror to 

 the Bechuanas, and other tribes bordering on his territory, was visited, at his 

 own request, by Mr. Moffat in 1830. Hearing of the white men at Kuruman 

 and their doings, Moselekatse sent two of his head men with some returning 

 traders to invite the great missionary to his town. On his way to visit the 

 chief, Mr. Moffat found a small colony of Bakones, settled among the branches 

 of a huge Baobab tree. He says : — 



" My attention was arrested by a beautiful and gigantic tree, standing in 

 a defile leading into an extensive and woody ravine, between a high range of 

 mountains. Seeing some individuals employed on the ground under its shade, 

 and the conical points of what looked like houses in miniature, protruding 

 through its evergreen foliage, I proceeded thither, and found that the tree was 

 inhabited by several families of Bakones, the aborigines of the country. I 

 ascended by the notched trunk, and found, to my amazement, no less than 

 seventeen of these aexial abodes, and three others, unfinished. On reaching 

 the topmost hut, about thirty feet from the ground, I entered, and sat down. 

 Its only furniture was the hay which covered the floor, a spear, a spoon, and 

 a bowl full of locusts. Not having eaten anything that day, and from the 

 novelty of my situation, not wishing to return immediately to the waggons, I 

 asked a woman who sat at the door with a babe at her breast, permission to 

 eat. This she granted with pleasure, and soon brought me more in a pow- 

 dered state. Several more females came from the neighbouring roosts, stepping 

 from branch to branch, to see the stranger, who was to them as great a 

 curiosity as the tree was to him. I then visited the different abodes, which 



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