178 PRESENTS TO SEKELETU. 



passed the spot some time afterwards, I found that the 

 whole of that ivory had been destroyed by an accidental 

 fire, which broke out in the village when all the people 

 w r ere absent. Success in trade is as much dependent on 

 knowledge of the language as success in travelling. 



I had brought with me as presents an improved breed 

 of goats, fowls, and a pair of cats. A superior bull was 

 bought, also as a gift to Sekeletu, but I was compelled to 

 leave it on account of its having become footsore. As the 

 Makololo are very fond of improving the breed of their 

 domestic animals, they were much pleased with my selec- 

 tion. I endeavoured to bring the bull, in performance of a 

 promise made to Sebituane before he died. Admiring a 

 calf which we had with us, he proposed to give me a cow 

 for it, which in the native estimation was offering three 

 times its value. I presented it to him at once, and pro- 

 mised to bring him another and a better one. Sekeletu 

 was much gratified by my attempt to keep my word given 

 to his father. 



They have two breeds of cattle among them. One 

 called the Batoka, because captured from that tribe, is of 

 diminutive size, but very beautiful ; and closely resembles 

 the short-horns of our own country. The little pair pre- 

 sented by the King of Portugal to H.R.H. the Prince 

 Consort, is of this breed. They are very tame, and 

 remarkably playful ; they may be seen lying on their 

 sides by the fires in the evening ; and, when the herd goes 

 out, the herdsman often precedes them, and has only to 

 commence capering to set them all a-gambolling. The 

 meat is superior to that of the large animal. The other, 

 or Barotse ox, is much larger, and comes from the fertile 

 Barotse Valley. They stand high on their legs, often 

 nearly six feet at the withers ; and they have large 

 horns. Those of one of a similar breed that we brought 

 from the lake measured from tip to tip eight and a half 

 feet. 



The Makololo are in the habit of shaving off a little from 

 one side of the horns of these animals when still growing, 

 in order to make them curve in that direction and assume 

 fantastic shapes. The stranger the curvature, the more 

 handsome the ox is considered to be, and the longer this 

 ornament of the cattle-pen is spared to beautify the herd. 

 This is a very ancient custom in Africa for the tributary 

 tribes of Ethiopia are seen, on some of the most ancient 



