During the time that I was delayed at Sesheke I took several opportunities of rambling into the surrounding woods, and found a number of trees and bushes that were quite new to me, whilst a great proportion of the kinds that I had already seen in the Bechuana forests appeared here to attain double the height that they did elsewhere. Four-footed game was very plentiful, and I noticed a hartebeest with flat compressed horns, different from any kind with which I was acquainted. Birds, likewise, seemed tolerably numerous, and I found a singular kind of bee-eater (Merops Nubicus), a grey medium-sized hornbill, the great plotus, and two species of spurred plovers with yellow wattles.
Returning from a walk I came across one of the caravans that arrive from the more distant parts of the kingdom, bringing in the periodical tribute for the king. It consisted of about thirty people, but very often a caravan of this kind will include considerably more, because whether the men come voluntarily, or under the compulsion of a chief, they are always obliged to bring their whole households with them. On making their entry into Sesheke the party was arranged mainly with regard to the stature of the people who composed it; a leader went in front, carrying nothing but his weapons and a great bell, which he continued ringing without intermission; following him were the men laden with the elephants’ tusks, the manza-roots, and the baskets of fruit that composed the tribute; then came the women in charge of the travelling-apparatus and provisions, the children all trudging on behind.
On the 19th Westbeech, Bauren, Walsh, and myself made up a party to go and fish in one of the lagoons. We arranged to go two and two in separate boats, but we were so unlucky in our choice that we soon found that we were in perpetual danger of losing our equilibrium, and had to return and exchange into craft of safer dimensions. We had an opportunity during our excursion to observe the way in which the Marutse and Masupias manipulate their nets. Made of bast, with meshes that are somewhat wide, each net is cast out with its ends secured to two boats, which are stationed at a distance from each other, and manned by four oarsmen apiece; when the net is sunk the two boats are made to approach each other at the same point upon the shore where the net is drawn up; the fish are stupified by being knocked with kiris, and then brought to land.
We were witnesses on our way back of a scene that was anything but pleasing. Some girls had been bathing in a creek, and one of them had stolen some beads belonging to another. On discovering that she had been robbed, the owner of the beads fell upon the unfortunate thief, and belaboured her so savagely with the reeds that she tore from the stream, that the culprit fell down and sued for mercy. A man who was standing near attempted to interfere, but nothing could pacify the anger of the infuriated girl; she persisted in administering chastisement, and was not deterred from her violence till she had actually snatched off the leather apron from the victim’s loins.
The same evening I was again invited to supper with the king. On this occasion an episode took place which unfortunately was by no means rare in Sepopo’s court, and which serves to illustrate his habitual cruelty. It was about an hour after sundown, and there was no lack of merriment in the royal enclosure. The king was sitting in his usual fashion—crossed-legged upon a mat. The wives whose turn it was to entertain him were on his right. On his left was spread another mat for myself, his nephew, and his immediate attendants. The rest of the company were arranged opposite to him, in a semicircle. The intervening space was left free for Matungulu, the royal cup-bearer, to dispense the honey-beer, a beverage peculiarly belonging to the court; all honey, as crown property, being sent to the royal kitchen. Men, moreover, are sent out to collect it by the aid of the honey-cuckoo, their expeditions frequently lasting several days. The king took a little draught of the beer, and handed the remainder to Lunga, his favourite wife, with a remark universally supposed to be so witty, that the whole assemblage, according to etiquette, burst into roars of laughter. Meanwhile one of the inferior chiefs took advantage of the noise to approach the king; and, clapping his hands gently without cessation as he spoke, said: “There was a man in my village, my lord king, too weak in his legs to hunt polocholo (game). It has pleased Nyamba (the great god) that all his wives should die; so that he can no longer procure any mabele (corn). This man has now come to settle here with you in Sesheke; but he is old, very old, and his relations are far away in the Barotse.” Sepopo nodded to signify that he quite understood the story. While he had been listening, his eye had again and again glanced towards a distant quarter, where the general crowd were gathered; and when the chief ceased to speak, the king cried out “Mashoku!” In an instant the executioner hastened towards him and received his commission to take care that the old man should no longer be permitted to be a burden to the neighbourhood.
Throughout the kingdom no one was more feared or more hated than the executioner Mashoku. He was a Mabunda; but the peculiar aptitude he had shown for his office had induced the king to raise him to the rank of a chieftain. He was over six feet high, and of a massive build; so ill-shaped, however, was his head, and so repulsive his cast of countenance, that I could never do otherwise than associate him in my mind with a hyæna.
Nothing could be more odious than the way in which Mashoku received his orders. Crawling up on all fours to the royal presence, he grinned with satisfaction at the instructions he received. He kept clapping his hands softly while he was attending; and having taken a sip from the goblet offered him by his royal master, he crawled back to his former place. The king was in high good humour; and after a few more jokes, retired to his bedchamber, whilst the band played their usual serenade from their adjacent hut.
Only too faithfully was the king’s sentence carried out next morning. Before it was light, five men wended their way towards the old man’s hut, one of whom, Mashoku himself, went in and seized his victim by the leg. Quite incapable of making any resistance, the poor man trembled like a leaf. He was dragged off to the river-side, and there thrust into a canoe that was lying in readiness. A few strokes of the paddle brought it into midstream; and while three of the assistant executioners kept it steady, Mashoku and the other man lifted the helpless creature by the shoulders and legs, and held him in the water. A gurgling noise, a few bubbles on the surface of the stream, and all was over. The body was hauled back into the boat, to be thrown into the water again at a spot near the bank where the king’s scavengers always flung their refuse to the crocodiles.
Such is an example of the summary way in which Sepopo would dispose of the friendless and infirm; and as the number of strangers that gathered round the king at Sesheke was considerable, executions of this kind were more frequent than in many other places. Under certain rulers—such for instance as Sepopo’s grandfather, who was much respected by the people—these cruelties fall into disuse, nor are they often practised when a queen holds the reins of government.
Next day I paid a visit to Masangu, to whom, as being responsible for the control of the guns distributed to the king’s vassals, I have already given the designation of governor of the arsenal. He was likewise superintendent of all the native smiths. I found him employed in repairing a gun, for which he was using hammers, chisels, pincers, and bellows, all of his own making, and of the most perfect construction that I had yet seen in South Africa.