BOOTCHUANA 
Many were assembled on the occasion. He 
walked slowly forward, holding in his hand a 
long stick, with a hedge-hog fixed to its top, 
and having his body daubed over with soot. The 
next day he passed through another ceremony in 
the same place, under the direction of his doctor. 
An ox being brought, his forelegs at the knee 
joints, were tied fast to his horns, and the hind 
legs were drawn backwards by skin-ropes fastened 
to each leg, which soon brought the animal on 
his side. While he thus lay stretched on the 
ground, a board was placed upon his upper side 
on which was painted, with a mixture of soot and 
grease, the figure of a cross. The King seated him- 
self across the board, as if riding, and the doctor 
poured water on his head, which ran down over 
his body ; after which they forced the poor ani- 
mal's head into a large vessel full of water, which 
soon suffocated him, the water reaching higher 
than his nostrils. The simple natives, not think- 
ing that the creature died by suffocation, believed 
the assertion of the doctor, who said it died by 
the King's disease being communicated to it, 
and from which the King was then free. Not- 
withstanding this belief, the animal was cut up 
and eaten. 
, This sickness of Mateebe's had nearly caused 
his death. He attributed it to the magic of a 
Bushman, with whom he had had a dispute about 
