MOSELEKA TSE. 185 



with tribes contiguous, for they barter from that quarter coarse cottons, though 

 they themselves make garments of cotton of a very coarse texture. I also saw 

 among them two musical instruments, consisting of about forty notes, com- 

 posed of as many strips of iron fastened to a small board within a large 

 calabash, into the opening of which the two hands are introduced, playing in 

 the same manner as one would on the pianoforte. The instrument exhibits 

 considerable ingenuity, and, for a people so barbarous, is a successful one. 

 Their dress, though rude enough, is much more decent than that of the Mata- 

 bele, and indeed they seem to be an entirely different people. Their language 

 is the same as the Makalaka tribe, of which, though a branch of the Sichuana, 

 I could understand but little. The Mashona say their fathers emigrated from 

 the south-east, beyond the land of the Baraputsi. Some of their customs are 

 peculiar, and different from any other tribe I know. 



"I had some conversation with Moselekatse, and tried to make him 

 understand that the world moved, and not the sun ; that the earth was a 

 globe, and not a flat ; that people could go round and round, and, were a 

 hole pierced through its centre to the other side, he would find people on 

 what would also appear to him a plain or sea. He looked rather bewildered 

 at these facts, for he had no idea that I was deliberately telling falsehoods. 

 I described to him the speed with which waggons travelled in England, and 

 ships on the sea ; but it seemed like multiplying words to no purpose, as it 

 was far above his conception. He, however, freely admitted the superior 

 wisdom of the white men, which afforded me an excellent text to explain to 

 him the process by which the Maengelise, as he calls them, have reached their 

 present state of refinement and wisdom. 



" In the course of another conversation with Moselekatse I had handed 

 to him some tin vessels I had made, which he admired, and no doubt 

 viewed me as a perfect genius of a tinker. I had before conversed with him 

 about Livingstone, and now stated plainly that it was my purpose to go to 

 Sekeletu's country, or as near it as I could get, in order to hear if he had 

 returned from the journey to the west coast, and to convey goods and letters 

 I had brought for him. This resolution was to him like a dose of assafcetida ; 

 he replied that he was my son, and I must not leave him, especially as he was 

 sick — that there was no one, even among his own people, whom he loved and 

 confided in like myself, and he could not give his consent to my undertaking 

 such a journey. He then began to number up bugbears, with the hope of 

 frightening me, and talked of fevers which pervaded all the rivers and swamps 

 through which I must pass — crocodiles, and savage hordes. Putting on a very 

 grave face, I said, ' Moselekatse, Livingstone is my child, and he is a servant 

 of God ; if I return without seeing him, or hearing certainly about him, I 

 shall return with a heavy heart, and tell my friends Moselekatse does not love 

 me.' I added, that if he had any fears of my perishing on the road, I should 

 z 



