MOSELEKATSE. 93 



plain adjoining the town was selected for the purpose, where Moselekatse took 

 his stand in the centre of an immense circle of his soldiers, numbers of women 

 being present, who with their shrill yoices and clapping of hands took part in the 

 concert. About thirty ladies from his harem with long white wands marched to 

 the song backward and forward on the outside of the ranks, their well lubricated 

 shining bodies being too weighty for the agile movements which characterized 

 the matrons and damsels of lower rank. They sang their war songs, and one 

 composed on occasion of the visit of the strangers, gazing on and adoring 

 with trembling fear and admiration, the potentate in the centre, who stood 

 and sometimes regulated the motions of thousands by the movement of his 

 head, or the raising or depression of his hand. He then sat down on his 

 shield of lion's skin, and asked me if it was not fine, and if we had such 

 things in my country. I could not gratify his vanity by saying I did admire 

 that which excited the most thrilling sensations in his martial bosom, and as 

 to there being balls, public balls, in honour of the great and renowned, I did 

 not choose to acknowledge. 



" This public entertainment or display of national glory occupied the 

 greater part of the day, when the chief retired swollen with pride, amidst the 

 deafening shouts of adoring applause, not only of the populace, but of his 

 satraps, who followed at a distance to do him homage at his own abode. 

 Whenever he arose or sat down, all within sight hailed him with a shout, 

 Baaite ! or Aaite ! followed by a number of his high sounding titles, such aa 

 Great King, King of heaven, the Elephant," etc. 



Mr. Moffat gives the following account of this Conqueror of the Desert: — 

 " When a youth his father was the chief of an independent tribe. His 

 people were attacked by one more powerful, and routed. He took refuge under 

 the sceptre of Chaka, who was then rendering his name terrible by deeds of 

 crime. Moselekatse, from his intrepid character, was placed at the head of a 

 marauding expedition, which made dreadful havoc among the northern tribes ; 

 but, instead of giving up the whole of the spoils, he made a reserve for himself. 

 This reaching the ears of Chaka, revenge instantly burned in the tyrant's 

 bosom, who resolved to annihilate so daring an aggressor. Moselekatse 

 was half prepared to take flight, and descend on the thickly-peopled re- 

 gions of the north, like a sweeping pestilence. He escaped, after a desperate 

 conflict with the warriors of Chaka, who killed nearly all the old men, and 

 many of the women. His destructive career among the Bakone tribes has been 

 noticed ; but dire as that was, it must have been only a faint transcript of the 

 terror, desolation, and death, which extended to the utmost limits of Chaka's 

 arms. Though but a follower in the footsteps of Chaka, the career of Mosele- 

 katse, from the period of his revolt till the time I saw him, and long after, 

 formed an interminable catalogue of crimes. Scarcely a mountain, over exten- 

 sive regions, but bore the marks of his deadly ire. His experience and native 



