NAMES OF BECHUANA TRIBES. 5 



saved before, after he had been tossed by a buffalo, 

 attempted to spear the lion while he was biting Mebalwe. 

 He left Mebalwe and caught this man by the shoulder, 

 but at that moment the bullets he had received took effect, 

 and he fell down dead. The whole was the work of a few 

 moments, and must have been his paroxysm of dying rage. 

 In order to take out the charm from him, the Bakatla on 

 the following day made a huge bonfire over the carcase, 

 which was declared to be that of the largest Hon they 

 had ever seen. Besides crunching the bone into 

 splinters, he left eleven teeth wounds on the upper part 

 of my arm. 



A wound from this animal's tooth resembles a gun-shot 

 wound ; it is generally followed by a great deal of slough- 

 ing and discharge, and pains are felt in the part periodi- 

 cally ever afterwards. I had on a tartan jacket on the 

 occasion, and I believe that it wiped off all the virus from 

 the teeth that pierced the flesh, for my two companions 

 in this affray have both suffered from the peculiar pains, 

 while I have escaped with only the inconvenience of a 

 false joint in my limb. The man whose shoulder was 

 wounded showed me his wound actually burst forth afresh 

 on the same month of the following year. This curious 

 point deserves the attention of inquirers. 



The different Bechuana tribes are named after certain 

 animals, showing probably that in former times they were 

 addicted to animal- worship, like the ancient Egyptians. 

 The term Bakatla means " they of the monkey ; " Baku- 

 ena, " they of the alligator " ; Batalpi, " they of the fish ; " 

 each tribe having a superstitious dread of the animal after 

 which it is called. They also use the word " bina," to 

 dance, in reference to the custom of thus naming them- 

 selves, so that, when you wish to ascertain what tribe they 

 belong to, you say, " What do you dance ? " It would 

 seem as if that had been a part of the worship of old. A 

 tribe never eats the animal which is its namesake, using 

 the term " ila," hate or dread, in reference to killing it. 

 We find traces of many ancient tribes in the country in 

 individual members of those now extinct, as the Batau, 

 " they of the lion ; " the Bandga, " they of the serpent ; " 

 though no such tribes now exist. The use of the personal 

 pronoun they, Ba-Ma, Wa, Va, or Ova, Am-Ki, &c, pre- 

 vails very extensively in the names of tribes in Africa. 

 A single individual is indicated by the terms Mo or I^e. 



