186 
MAKOLOLO WOMEN. 
Chap. IX. 
Batoka, and Banyeti, tlie Makololo have a sickly line. Tliey are 
of a liglit-brownisli yellow colour, while the tribes referred to are 
very dark, with a slight tinge of olive. The whole of the colonred 
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 agTeeable than the 
tawny hue of the half-caste, winch 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 cliildren, 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 lordsliip over 
gxeat 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. Tins species of servitude 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 the Makololo are compelled to treat them, to a great 
extent, rather as cliildren than slaves. Some masters, who fail 
from defect of temper or disposition to secure the affections of the 
conquered people, frequently find themselves left without a single 
servant, in consequence of the absence and impossibility of en¬ 
forcing a fugitive slave law, and the readiness with which those 
who are themselves subjected assist the fugitives across the rivers 
in canoes. The Makololo ladies are liberal in their presents of 
millc and other food, and seldom requue to labour, except in the 
way of beautifying their own huts and court-yards. They drink 
large quantities of boyaloa, or o-alo, the buza of the Arabs, 
wliich, being made of the grain called holciis sorghum, or dura- 
saifi,” in a minute state of subdivision, is very nutritious, and 
gives that plumpness of form wliich is considered beautiful. They 
