178 
THE COUKT HEKALD. 
Chap. IX. 
CHAPTEE IX. 
Eeception at Linyanti — The court herald — Sekeletii obtains the chieftain¬ 
ship from his sister — Mpepe’s plot — Slave-trading Mambari ■— Their 
sudden flight — Sekeletu narrowly escapes assassination — Execution of 
Mpepe — The courts of law — Mode of trying offences — Sekeletu’s 
reason for not learning to read the Bible —- The disposition m.ade of the 
wives of a deceased chief — Makololo women — They work but little — 
Employ serfs — Their drink, dress, and ornaments — Public religious 
services in the kotla ■— Unfavourable associations of the place — Native 
doctors — Proposal to teach the Makololo to read — Sekeletu’s present 
— Peason for accepting it — Trading in ivory — Accidental fire — Pre¬ 
sents for Sekeletu — Two breeds of native cattle — Ornamenting the cattle 
— The women and the looking-glass — Mode of preparing the skins of 
oxen for mantles and for shields — Throwing the spear. 
The whole population of Linyanti, numbering between six and 
seven thousand souls, turned out en masse to see the waggons hr 
motion. They had never witnessed the phenomenon before, we 
having on the former occasion departed by night. Sekeletu, now 
in power, received us in what is considered royal style, setting 
before us a great number of pots of boyaloa, the beer of the 
country. These were brought by women, and each bearer takes 
a good di’aught of the beer when she sets it down, by way of 
“ tasting,” to show that there is no poison. 
The comd herald, an old man who occupied the post also ui 
Sebituane’s time, stood up, and after some antics, such as leaping, 
and shouting at the top of Ihs voice, roared out some adulatory 
sentences, as, “Don’t I see the wliite 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 assembhes, keep the 
kotla clean, and the fire burning every evening, and when a 
person is executed in pubhc he drags away the body. 
I found Sekeletu a‘ young man of eighteen years of age, of 
