172 MAKOI<OI,0 WOMEN. 



The majority of the wives of Sebituane were given to 

 influential under-chiefs ; and, in reference to their early- 

 casting off the widow's weeds, a song was sung, the tenor 

 of which was that the men alone felt the loss of their 

 father Sebituane, the women were so soon supplied with 

 new husbands that their hearts had not time to become 

 sore with grief. 



The women complain, because the proportions between 

 the sexes are so changed now, that they are not valued as 

 they deserve. The majority of the real Makololo have 

 been cut off by fever. Those who remain are a mere 

 fragment of the people who came to the north with 

 Sebituane. Migrating from a very healthy climate in the 

 south, they were more subject to the febrile diseases of 

 the valley in which we found them, than the black tribes 

 they conquered. In comparison with the Barotse, Batoka, 

 and Banyeti, the Makololo have a sickly hue. They are 

 of a light-brownish yellow colour, while the tribes referred 

 to are very dark, with a slight tinge of olive. The whole 

 of the coloured tribes consider that beauty and fairness 

 are associated, and women long for children of light colour 

 so much, that they sometimes chew the bark of a certain 

 tree in hopes of producing that effect. To my eye the 

 dark colour is much more agreeable than the tawny hue 

 of the half-caste, which that of the Makololo ladies closely 

 resembles. The women generally escaped the fever, but 

 they are less fruitful than formerly, and, to their complaint 

 of being undervalued on account of the disproportion of 

 the sexes, they now add their regrets at the want of 

 children, of whom they are all excessively fond. 



The Makololo women work but little. Indeed, the 

 families of that nation are spread over the country, one or 

 two only in each village, as the lords of the land. They 

 all have lordship over great numbers of subjected tribes, 

 who pass by the general name Makalaka, and who are 

 forced to render certain services, and to aid in tilling the 

 soil ; but each has his own land under cultivation, and 

 otherwise lives nearly independent. They are proud to 

 be called Makololo, but the other term is often used in 

 reproach, as betokening inferiority. This species of ser- 

 vitude may be termed serfdom, as it has to be rendered 

 in consequence of subjection by force of arms, but it is 

 necessarily very mild. It is so easy for any one who is 

 unkindly treated to make his escape to other tribes, that 



