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CHAPTER XXXV.

THE BATOANA-GOVERNMENT-ELOQUENCE-LANGUAGE—MYTHOLOGY—

RELIGION

SUPERSTITION-THE RAIN-MAKER-POLYGAMY-CIRCUMCISION-BURIAL-DISPOSITION OF THE BECHUANAS-THIEVISH PROPENSITIES-DRESS-GREAT SNUFF-TAKERS-SMOKING-OCCUPATIONS -AGRICULTURE-COMMERCE-HUNTING AND FISHING.

THE people who dwell on the shores of the Lake are, as before said, called Batoana,1 under the rule of Lecholétébè. They are a small tribe of that large family of 'Blacks' known as Bechuanas, who, as a whole, are probably the most widely distributed and the most powerful of all the dark-coloured nations in Southern Africa. The Batoana have not been long dwellers in the Lake regions; they came as conquerors under Lecholétébè's father. Having dispossessed the aborigines, they reduced them to a state of slavery, giving them a name corresponding to their condition, viz., Bakoba or Makoba, that is 'serfs.' These people, however, style themselves Bayeye, or 'Men;' and, by that appellation, I shall hereafter call them.

In giving a general description of the manners and cus

1 Some of the notions entertained of these people before the existence of the Ngami was known to Europeans are curious and amusing. Captain Messum, in an article in the Nautical Magazine on the exploration of Western Africa,' says that he had heard the inhabitants of the Lake regions represented as monsters with only one eye in the centre of the forehead, and feeding on human flesh, as the giants of old used to take their breakfasts. A baby was nothing; they swallowed it whole.'

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FORM OF GOVERNMENT.

toms, religious rites, superstitions, &c., of the Bechuanasthe parent stock as shown of the Batoanas-I shall also have described those of the latter tribe; for though they may differ in some respects, they agree in the main.

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"The government of the people is at once both monarchical and patriarchal, and comparatively mild in its character. Each tribe has its chief or king, who commonly resides in the largest town, and is held sacred from his hereditary right to that office. A tribe generally includes a number of towns or villages, each having its distinct head, under whom there are a number of subordinate chiefs. These constitute the aristocracy of the nation, and all acknowledge the supremacy of the principal one. His power, though very great, and in some instances despotic, is, nevertheless, controlled by the senior chiefs, who, in their pichos or pitshos (their parliament, or public meetings), use the greatest plainness of speech in exposing what they consider culpable or lax in his government. An able speaker will sometimes turn the scale even against the king. These

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assemblies keep up a tolerable equilibrium of power between the chiefs and their king; but they are only convened when it is necessary to adjust differences between tribes-when a predatory expedition is to be undertaken-or when the removal of a tribe is contemplated; though occasionally matters of less moment are introduced."1

The language used by the natives on public occasions, and more especially by the chiefs, is often powerful, eloquent, shrewd, and fluent, and would do honour to the best educated European. Take the following speech as an example, which contains the address of the famous Basuto king, Mosheshe, to his people, when congratulating them on the happy event of having received three worthy missionaries amongst them :—

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Rejoice, you Makare and Mokatchani!-you rulers of cities, rejoice! We have all reason to rejoice on account of the news we have heard. There are a great many sayings among men. Among them some are true, and some are false; but the false have remained with us, and multiplied— therefore, we ought to pick up carefully the truths we hear, lest they should be lost in the rubbish of lies. We are told that we have all been created by one Being, and that we all spring from one man. Sin entered man's heart when he ate the forbidden fruit, and we have got sin from him. These men say that they have sinned; and what is sin in them is sin in us, because we come from one stock, and their hearts and ours are one thing. Ye Makare have heard these words, and you say they are lies. If these words do not conquer, the fault will lie with you. You say you will not believe what you do not understand. Look at an egg! If a man break it, there comes only a watery and yellow substance out of it; but if it be placed under the wing of a fowl, a living

1 Moffat.

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LANGUAGE.

MYTHOLOGY.

thing comes from it. Who can understand this? Who ever knew how the heat of the hen produced the chicken in the egg? This is incomprehensible to us, yet we do not deny the fact. Let us do like the hen. Let us place these truths in our hearts, as the hen does the eggs under her wings; let us sit upon them, and take the same pains, and something new will come of them."

The language of the Bechuanas (the plural of Mochuana, a single individual) is called Sichuana-an adjective implying anything belonging to the nation. It is exceedingly soft and mellifluous, owing to their being few syllables that end with a consonant. The only exceptions are 'nouns in the ablative case, plural verbs, verbs definite, and the interrogatives why, how, and what, all of which end with the ringing n.'

The first acquaintance of Europeans with the Bechuanas, dates from an early period of the history of the Cape Colony. There is reason to believe that this nation once extended as far as the Orange River; but at the present day, none of the tribes are found beyond the 28th parallel of south latitude.

The Bechuanas (as already mentioned in the history of the Damaras) believe that they originally sprang from a cave, said to exist in the Bakone country, where the footmarks of the first man may still be seen in the rock.

If we are to credit the testimony of some missionaries, the Bechuanas have no notion of a Superior Being. It is a strong argument in favour of this hypothesis, that no word in their language properly denotes God. Speaking of these people, Mr. Moffat says:-"I have often wished to find something by which I could lay hold on the minds of the natives; an altar to the unknown God;' the faith of their ancestors, the immortality of the soul, or any religious association. But nothing of this kind ever floated in their

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minds. They looked on the sun with the eyes of an ox.' To tell the greatest of them that there was a Creator, the Governor of the heavens and earth-of the fall of man, or the redemption of the world the resurrection of the dead, and immortality beyond the grave, was to tell them what appeared to be more fabulous, extravagant, and ludicrous, than their own vain stories about lions, hyænas, and jackals. To tell them that these (referring, of course, to the different elements of our creed) were articles of our faith, would extort an interjection of superlative surprise, as if they were too preposterous for the most foolish to believe."

"What is the difference?' said a native one day to the writer just quoted, pointing to his dog, 'between me and that animal? You say I am immortal, and why not my dog or my ox? They die; and do you see their souls ? What is the difference between man and beast? None, except that man is the greater rogue of the two!'

"They could not see that there was anything in our customs more agreeable to flesh and blood than in their own; but would, at the same time, admit that we were a wiser and a superior race of beings to themselves. For this superiority, some of their wise heads would try to account; but this they could only do on the ground of our own statement, that God made man.

"A wily fellow, who was the oracle of the village in which he dwelt, once remarked, after hearing me enlarge on the subject of creation, 'If you verily believe that one Being created all men, then, according to reason, you must also believe that, in making white people, he had improved on his work. He tried his hand on Bushmen first, and he did not like them, because they were so ugly; and their language like that of frogs. He then tried his hand on the Hottentots; but these did not please him either. He then

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