happen to be a much younger woman than the rest.

The majority of the wives of Sebituane were given to influential
under-chiefs; and, in reference to their early casting off the widow's
weeds, a song was sung, the tenor of which was that the men alone felt
the loss of their father Sebituane, the women were so soon supplied with
new husbands that their hearts had not time to become sore with grief.

The women complain because the proportions between the sexes are so
changed now that they are not valued as they deserve. The majority of
the real Makololo have been cut off by fever. Those who remain are
a mere fragment of the people who came to the north with Sebituane.
Migrating from a very healthy climate in the south, they were more
subject to the febrile diseases of the valley in which we found them
than the black tribes they conquered. In comparison with the Barotse,
Batoka, and Banyeti, the Makololo have a sickly hue. They are of a light
brownish-yellow color, while the tribes referred to are very dark, with
a slight tinge of olive. The whole of the colored tribes consider that
beauty and fairness are associated, and women long for children of light
color so much, that they sometimes chew the bark of a certain tree in
hopes of producing that effect. To my eye the dark color is much more
agreeable than the tawny hue of the half-caste, which that of the
Makololo ladies closely resembles. The women generally escaped the
fever, but they are less fruitful than formerly, and, to their complaint
of being undervalued on account of the disproportion of the sexes, they
now add their regrets at the want of children, of whom they are all
excessively fond.

The Makololo women work but little. Indeed, the families of that nation
are spread over the country, one or two only in each village, as
the lords of the land. They all have lordship over great numbers of
subjected tribes, who pass by the general name Makalaka, and who are
forced to render certain services, and to aid in tilling the soil; but
each has his own land under cultivation, and otherwise lives nearly
independent. They are proud to be called Makololo, but the other term
is often used in reproach, as betokening inferiority. This species of
servitude may be termed serfdom, as it has to be rendered in consequence
of subjection by force of arms, but it is necessarily very mild. It is
so easy for any one who is unkindly treated to make his escape to
other tribes, that th