Travelling is performed with the help of bearers, who are either hired for the entire distance, or from tribe to tribe, the conditions being rigidly investigated by the king. In return for a supply of bearers the king expects a present of a breech-loader and 200 cartridges, or three elephant-guns, or muzzle-loaders, and recently looks for some articles of clothing in addition; and every governor of a province that is traversed has to be presented either with a gift of clothes or with a good blanket. If hired for two months a servant receives a cotton sheet, or three yards of calico, or a pound of small blue beads. No subject may be engaged as servant to a white man for a period of more than six months without the consent of the sovereign, except the transaction be a private one between a koshi and his slave. For a year’s service the remuneration on the Zambesi was usually a musket, the servant of course being kept by the employer, and receiving an occasional present of tobacco, or dacha. If bearers and boatmen are under the supervision of a good overseer they do their work very well, are contented with one meal a day, and with intervals of one rest of half an hour, and about five more of a quarter of an hour each, they will march or row from daybreak until after four o’clock in the afternoon. Immediately upon halting they light a fire with a brand which they always carry with them, and commence smoking their dacha-pipes.
But without a good makosana or overlooker the case is very different. Then the traveller, especially a white man, is exposed to all sorts of annoyances, and not only will the servants do all in their power to hinder his progress, but the more indulgently he acts, the worse they will be. The baggage is generally carried on their heads, or on a stick placed across the shoulder, very heavy packages being conveyed on a long pole by two or four men. They travel on an average at the rate of nearly three miles an hour. On the river, boats make from three and a half to four and a half miles against the stream, and from five and a half to seven miles with the stream, if unimpeded by rapids, and not interfered with by hippopotamuses.
When travelling alone the natives take very few provisions. The small two-oared boats that convey the corn-tribute to Sesheke are nearly always so heavily laden that the boatmen take nothing with them but a little fish, satisfied to get what food they can upon their way by gathering wild fruits from the banks, and by knocking over with their thoboni-sticks, which they use with an aim that seldom errs, some of the birds in the rushes, which their noiseless advance allows them to approach without disturbing.
The administration of justice in the Marutse kingdom is a topic not without its interest. By the formation of the greater council the cause of judicial equity was materially advanced, but unfortunately this institution, founded by a constitutional ruler now long deceased, has latterly lost much of its prestige, and has received almost its death-blow under the despotism of Sepopo. For the last ten years justice has been set at defiance more and more. Long established customs, having the sanction of law, are fondly clung to by the natives, who naturally resent any interference with their privileges, and it was Sepopo’s attempt to suppress the ancient usages that first estranged him from his subjects. The laws of property, the social relations between the tribes, the law of succession to the throne, the recognized rule of treaties, and the criminal code, were all completely subverted by him, being either abrogated altogether, or remodelled to suit his own fancy. It seems, however, a matter of certainty that under Wana-Wena, his successor, the greater part of the old Marutse law will be re-established.
Minor differences are adjusted by the kosanas and makosanas, more important charges being referred to the governing chiefs; but all offences of a serious character, if they are committed within moderate distance of the royal residence, are tried before the king and the greater council. Murder, which is of rare occurrence, is always punished with death. More executions took place at the royal quarters than in any other part of the country, because any one who incurred any unpopularity in the provinces was tolerably sure to be dragged thither upon a charge of high treason. When once Sepopo’s suspicions were aroused against an individual, he had no respect of persons; neither close relationship, faithful service, nor official rank had any weight with him, and he would credit no evidence; in such cases the mere accusation of high treason, murder, desertion, selling ivory or honey, stealing royal property, adultery with one of the queens, or manslaughter, was quite enough to secure a conviction, and the accused would forthwith be condemned to be poisoned and burnt. Brawling, causing bodily injury to others, and pilfering, were punished by hard labour in the king’s fields, or by slavery for life. When the king had no personal interest in a case he suffered the council to pass sentence without interference on his own part, and when any criminal was declared to be worthy of death, the sentence ran that he was to be poisoned by the judgment of God.
I was myself a witness of an execution under this sentence. It was a singularly calm morning, and after a night disturbed by a grand carousal of the people, there was perfect silence. Before daybreak, however, the stillness was broken by the noise of the Mamboë starting off with their canoes and nets to get the daily supply of fish for the court, and being aroused, I went out, as I had occasionally done before, to watch their departure. As I was returning I met a group of about twenty people hurrying off towards the woods; a second glance explained the cause that had brought them out so early. At the head of the party was that Mabunda hyæna, Mashoku, the king’s executioner; he was attired in a gaily checked woollen shirt, reaching almost to his heels, and close behind him was a dejected-looking man of middle age; then followed two old creatures, like walking mummies, who, by their fez-like headgear, were at once known as the king’s physicians, and the ruling spirits of his secret council; next came four young men armed with assegais. Two little clusters of people brought up the rear; in the foremost of these was a woman and two children; the last batch was screeching and shouting with excitement. As I stood watching the proceedings I heard a voice whispering close behind me—it only confirmed what I had already supposed—“Camaya mo mositu, ku umubulaya mona mo” (they are going to the woods to kill that man there). I looked round, and found that I was being informed of what was going on by one of the Sesheke boys who used to sell me his fish for beads.
I ascertained that the unfortunate who was being dragged to execution had been accused of high treason by some of his neighbours, who were jealous of his crops, and Sepopo had condemned him to death in spite of the general wish of the council to acquit him; but it happened that Sepopo was more unwell than usual, and it was made a part of the charge that his illness was brought about by some charms that the man had devised.
On reaching the woodland glade that was the place of execution, Mashoku tore off the condemned man’s leather apron, and broke his wooden and ivory bracelets, the four young men in attendance fastening on him another apron made of some leaves that they gathered on the spot. In the middle of the glade stood a sort of low gallows, consisting of two upright posts, five feet high and three feet apart, with one horizontal crossbar along the top, and another about a third of the way up. There were several piles of ashes lying about, from which projected some charred human bones.
Mashoku made his victim sit down upon the lower crossbar and take hold of the uprights with each hand. One of the four assistants then brought out a small gourd-bottle, and he was followed by a second carrying a wooden bowl. Having poured out into the bowl a black decoction with which he had been supplied by the king, Mashoku ordered the man to swallow it. The order was immediately obeyed; but no sooner had he drunk the contents of the bowl than all his relations who were present rushed up in the hope of seeing him vomit the draught. “Father, husband, brother, friend!” they cried; “fear not! you are innocent. Your foes were jealous; they grudged you your mabele! Nyambe knows you are a good man! Nyambe grant you to vomit the poison!” But meanwhile the accusers took advantage of any opportunity they could get to revile the poor creature bitterly; they shook their fists at him; they spat in his face; they called him scoundrel, thief, cheat; declared that he was getting only his deserts, and that his bones should be burned as the bones of a traitor.
According to the old Marutse law, every condemned malefactor has to drink a bowl of poison; if after swallowing it, he falls down, succumbing to its influence, he is declared guilty, and his body is at once burnt; if, on the other hand, he vomits what he has taken, he is discharged as innocent; the respite, however, is practically only temporary, as the poison is almost certain to have caused such a disorder in the blood that death ensues in the course of a year or two. In his general subversion of all the long established ordinances of the kingdom, Sepopo set aside this rule just when he pleased, and often gave his executioner private orders to proceed to burn the accused under any circumstances.