Chap. XII, 
EELIGIOUS FEELING. 
219 
Most Faithful Majesty’s Arbitrator in the British and Portu¬ 
guese Mixed Commission at Gape Town, was evidently anxious 
to show me all the kindness in his power. These persons I feel 
assured were the first individuals of Portuguese blood who ever 
saw the Zambesi in the centre of the country, and they had 
reached it two years after our discovery in 1851. 
The town or mound of Santuru’s mother was shown to me ; 
this was the first symptom of an altered state of feeling with 
regard to the female sex that I had observed. There are few or 
no cases of women being elevated to the headships of towns 
further south. The Barotse also showed some relics of their chief, 
which evinced a greater amount of the religious feeling than 
I had ever known displayed among Bechuanas. His more recent 
capital, Lilonda, built, too, on an artificial mound, is covered with 
different kinds of trees, transplanted when young by himself. 
They form a grove on the end of the mound, in which are to be 
seen various instruments of iron just in the state he left them. 
One looks like the guard of a basket-hilted sword ; another has 
an upright stem of the metal, on which are placed branches 
worked at the ends into miniature axes, hoes, and spears; on 
these he was accustomed to present offerings, according as he 
desired favours to be conferred in undertaking hewing, agricul¬ 
ture, or fighting. The people still living there, in charge of 
these articles, were supported by presents from the chief; and 
the Makololo sometimes follow the example. This was the 
nearest approach to a priesthood I met. When I asked them 
to part with one of these relics they replied, 0, no, he refuses.” 
—“ Wlio refuses ? ”—‘‘ Santuru,” was their reply, showing their 
belief in a future state of existence. After explaining to them, 
as I always did when opportmiity offered, the nature of true 
worship, and praying with them in the simple form which needs 
no offering from the worshipper except that of the heart, and 
planting some fruit-tree seeds in the grove, we departed. 
Another incident, which occurred at the confluence of the Leeba 
and Leeambye, may be mentioned here, as showing a more vivid 
perception of the existence of spiritual beings, and greater prone¬ 
ness to worship, than among the Bechuanas. Having taken lunar 
observations in the morning, I was waiting for a meridian altitude 
of the sun for the latitude; my chief boatman was sitting by, in 
