12 PROLONGED DROUGHT. 



our own uneducated peasantry. They are remarkably 

 accurate in their knowledge of cattle, sheep, and goats, 

 knowing exactly the kind of pasturage suited to each ; 

 and they select with great judgment the varieties of 

 soil best suited to different kinds of grain. They are also 

 familiar with the habits of wild animals, and in general 

 are well up in the maxims which embody their ideas of 

 political wisdom. 



The place where we first settled with the Bakwains is 

 called Chonuane, and it happened to be visited, during the 

 first year of our residence there, by one of those droughts 

 which occur from time to time in even the most favoured 

 districts of Africa. 



The belief in the gift or power of rain-making is one of 

 the most deeply-rooted articles of faith in this country. 

 The chief Sechele was himself a noted rain-doctor, and 

 believed in it implicitly. He has often assured me that 

 he found it more difficult to give up his faith in that than 

 in anything else which Christianity required him to abjure. 

 I pointed out to him that the only feasible way of watering 

 the gardens was to select some good never-failing river, 

 make a canal, and irrigate the adjacent lands. This 

 suggestion was immediately adopted, and soon the whole 

 tribe was on the move to the Kolobeng, a stream about 

 forty miles distant. The experiment succeeded admirably 

 during the first year. The Bakwains made the canal and 

 dam in exchange for my labour in assisting to build a 

 square house for their chief. They also built their own 

 school under my superintendence. Our house at the 

 river Kolobeng, which gave a name to the settlement, 

 was the third "which I had reared with my own hands. 

 A native smith taught me to weld iron ; and having im- 

 proved by scraps of information in that line from Mr. 

 Moffat, and also in carpentering and gardening, I was 

 becoming handy at almost any trade, besides doctoring 

 and preaching ; and as my wife could make candles, 

 soap, and clothes, we came nearly up to what may be 

 considered as indispensable in the accomplishments of 

 a missionary family in Central Africa, namely, the 

 husband to be a jack-of- all-trades without doors, and 

 the wife a maid-of-all-work within. But in our second 

 year again no rain fell. In the third the same extra- 

 ordinary drought followed. Indeed, not ten inches 

 of water fell during these two years, and the Kolobeng 



