Besides ascribing their calamities to the operation of evil spirits, they often think that they arise from the displeasure of a departed chief, who consequently has to be propitiated by certain ceremonies at his grave. For instance, if a member of the royal family is ill, he is carried, by the permission of the authorities, to the grave of the most important chieftain deceased in the neighbourhood, and there some dignitary, not unfrequently the king himself, will repeat a form of prayer supplicating the departed on behalf of the patient, and entreating him to intercede with Nyambe that he may be restored to health.
Page 302.
SEPOPO’S HEAD MUSICIAN.
The mode of living throughout the empire is certainly less rude than that of the tribes south of the Zambesi. Agriculture is so remunerative, and cattle-breeding in two-thirds of the country is so successful, the other third, in spite of its being infested by the tsetse-fly, is so abundant in game, the rivers and lagoons produce such quantities of fish, and the forests yield so many varieties of fruits and edible roots and seeds, that, unlike many of the Bechuana tribes, the natives never suffer from want during the summer rains. In husbandry and in cattle-breeding alike they have great advantages in their abundance of water, their fertile soil, and their genial climate.
The fields are weeded with great assiduity by the women, and most of them are sufficiently drained by long furrows. As harvest-time approaches huts and raised platforms are erected in the vicinity, so that guard may be kept over the produce; children as well as adults are set to perform this office, which has to be maintained night and day. The corn is threshed by laying the ears on large skins or on straw mats, and then beating it with sticks. A certain proportion of the ingathering is allotted to the women to dispose of as they please; and to judge from the hard bargains they drove with myself and the white traders, they seem to manipulate their property with considerable advantage to themselves. The men, too, always demanded more for the goods that belonged to the women than they did for their own, saying the wife had fixed the price, and that if they could not obtain it they were to carry the things back again.
Apart from the tribute which they have to provide for the king and for the local chief, a family of five people, to meet their own requirements, will cultivate, according to their means, one, two, or three of the ordinary plots of ground, running about three-quarters of an acre each. Two-thirds of the tilled soil are in the wooded parts of the country, and the land is first cleared by the men and boys, who cut down the underwood and the lower branches of the trees, the wood thus obtained being used for the fences, and the weeds and faggots being burnt for manure. September and October are the usual months for sowing; but gourds, leguminous plants, and tobacco are sown any time up to December; the growth of the two latter crops being so extremely rapid that they often ripen by January, whilst kaffir-corn and maize are ready by February, beans coming in during both these months.
The crops most extensively cultivated are the two kinds of kaffir-corn, the red and the white; they both thrive admirably, and form the staple of the cereal impost, and the chief material of external traffic. Both sorts are identical with those that are found throughout South Africa.
There is a third kind of corn which is only occasionally seen in the district, called “kleen-corn” by the Dutch hunters, and “rosa” by the Marutse. The grains are small, not unlike hemp-seed, and when ground they produce a black flour that binds better for bread-making than either of the two sorghum-like species. The Marutse regard it as being especially choice, and it is double the price of the others.
Maize is very frequently cultivated, and with good success; but there is a still larger preponderance of crops of the gourd tribe, such as various species of water-melons, edible gourds, and bottle gourds, which are only grown for the sake of their shells. About as common as these are two species of beans, one small and almost colourless, the other larger and of a crimson or purple tint. Like mabele (common corn), rosa, and imboni (maize), these beans, known respectively as the “li-tu” and the “di-nowa,” form a certain part of the contribution to the royal revenue. When boiled with meat or with hippopotamus-bacon they have a flavour which is reckoned superior to our European species.