188 
MEDICAL PEACTICE. 
Chap. IX. 
Tlie service consisted of reading a small portion of tlie Bible and 
giving an explanatory address, usually short enough to prevent 
weariness or want of attention. So long as we continue to hold 
services in the kotla, the associations of the place are unfavourable 
to solemnity; hence it is always desirable to have a place of 
worsliip as soon as possible: and it is of importance too to treat 
such place with reverence, as an aid to secure that serious atten¬ 
tion which religious subjects demand. This will appear more 
evident when it is recollected that, in the very spot where we had 
been engaged in acts of devotion, half an hour after, a dance 
would be got up; and these habits cannot be at first opposed 
without the appearance of assuming too much authority over 
them. It is always unwise to hml their feelings of independence. 
Much greater influence will be gained by studying how you may 
induce them to act aright, with the impression that they are 
doing it of them own free will. Our services having necessarily 
been all in the open air, where it is most difficult to address 
large bodies of people, prevented my recovering so entirely from 
the effects of clergyman’s sore throat as I expected, when my 
uvula was excised at the Cape. 
To give an idea of the routine followed for months together, 
on other days as well as on Sundays, I may advert to my habit 
of treating the sick for complaints wliich seemed to.surmount 
the skill of their own doctors. I refrained from going to any one 
uidess his own doctor wished it, or had given up the case. This led 
to my having a selection of the severer cases only, and prevented 
the doctors being offended at my taking them practice out of 
their hands. When attacked by fever myself, and wishing to 
ascertain what their practices were, I could safely intrust myself 
in their hands on account of their well-known friendly feelings. 
The plan of showing kindness to the natives in them bodily 
ailments secures them friendship; tliis is not the case to the same 
degTee in old missions, wliere the people have learned to look 
upon rehef as a right, a state of things that sometimes happens 
among om’selves at home. Medical aid is therefore most valuable 
in young missions, though at all stages it is an extremely valuable 
adjunct to other operations. 
I proposed to teach the Makololo to read, but, for the reasons 
mentioned, Sekeletu at first declined; after some weeks, however, 
Motibe, his father-in-law, and some others determmed to brave 
