SEKEI^ETU OBTAINS CHIEFTAINSHIP. l6$ 



These were brought by women, and each bearer takes a 

 good draught of the beer when she sets it down, by way 

 of " tasting," to show that there is no poison. 



The court herald, an old man who occupied the post 

 also in Sebituane's time, stood up, and after some antics, 

 such as leaping, and shouting at the top of his voice, 

 roared out some adulatory sentences, as, " Don't I see the 

 white man ? Don't I see the comrade of Sebituane ? 

 Don't I see the father of Sekeletu ? " — " We want sleep " — 

 " Give your son sleep, my lord," &c. &c. The perquisites 

 of this man are the heads of all the cattle slaughtered by 

 the chief, and he even takes a share of the tribute before 

 it is distributed and taken out of the kotla. He is ex- 

 pected to utter all the proclamations, call assemblies, 

 keep the kotla clean, and the fire burning every evening, 

 ana when a person is executed in public he drags away 

 the body. 



I found Sekeletu a young man of eighteen years of age, 

 of that dark yellow or coffee-and-milk colour, of which the 

 Makololo are so proud, because it distinguishes them con- 

 siderably from the black tribes on the rivers. He is about 

 five feet seven in height, and neither so good-looking, nor 

 of so much ability as nis father was, but is equally friendly 

 to the English. Sebituane installed his daughter Mamo- 

 chisane into the chieftainship long before his death, 

 but, with all his acuteness, the idea of her having a 

 husband who should not be her lord did not seem to 

 enter his mind. He wished to make her his successor, 

 probably in imitation of some of the negro tribes with 

 whom he had come into contact ; but, being of the 

 Bechuana race, he could not look upon the husband 

 except as the woman's lord, so he told her all the men 

 were hers, she might take any one, but ought to keep 

 none. In fact, he thought she might do with the men 

 what he could do with the women ; but these men had 

 other wives ; and according to a saying in the country, 

 " the tongues of women cannot be governed," they made 

 her miserable by their remarks. One man whom she 

 chose was even called her wife, and her son the child of 

 Mamochisane's wife ; but the arrangement was so dis- 

 tasteful to Mamochisane herself, that, as soon as Sebituane 

 died, she said she never would consent to govern the 

 Mokololo so long as she had a brother living. Sekeletu, 

 being afraid of another member of the family, 'Mpepe, 



