by the way, in order to put
a blood-feud between Masiko, the chief to whom they were going, and
Sekeletu. The Batoka under Sinamane, and Muemba, were independent, and
Mashotlane at the Falls was setting Sekeletu's authority virtually at
defiance. Sebituane's wise policy in treating the conquered tribes on
equal terms with his own Makololo, as all children of the chief, and
equally eligible to the highest honours, had been abandoned by his son,
who married none but Makololo women, and appointed to office none but
Makololo men. He had become unpopular among the black tribes, conquered
by the spear but more effectually won by the subsequent wise and just
government of his father.

Strange rumours were afloat respecting the unseen Sekeletu; his fingers
were said to have grown like eagle's claws, and his face so frightfully
distorted that no one could recognize him. Some had begun to hint that
he might not really be the son of the great Sebituane, the founder of the
nation, strong in battle, and wise in the affairs of state. "In the days
of the Great Lion" (Sebituane), said his only sister, Moriantsiane's
widow, whose husband Sekeletu had killed, "we had chiefs and little
chiefs and elders to carry on the government, and the great chief,
Sebituane, knew them all, and everything they did, and the whole country
was wisely ruled; but now Sekeletu knows nothing of what his underlings
do, and they care not for him, and the Makololo power is fast passing
away." {3}

The native doctors had given the case of Sekeletu up. They could not
cure him, and pronounced the disease incurable. An old doctress from the
Manyeti tribe had come to see what she could do for him, and on her skill
he now hung his last hopes. She allowed no one to see him, except his
mother and uncle, making entire seclusion from society an essential
condition of the much longed-for cure. He sent, notwithstanding, for the
Doctor; and on the following day we all three were permitted to see him.
He was sitting in a covered wagon, which was enclosed by a high wall of
close-set reeds; his face was only slightly disfigured by the thickening
of the skin in parts, where the leprosy had passed over it; and the only
peculiarity about his hands was the extreme length of his finger-nails,
which, however, was nothing very much out of the way, as all the Makololo
gentlemen wear them uncommonly long. He has the quiet, unassuming
manners of his father, Sebituane, speaks d