d of so
much oil, wherewith to smear their bodies. As education becomes more
diffused, old heathen customs lose their hold, and will probably in
thirty years have disappeared. The belief in ghosts and magic is, of
course, still strong. On the top of Thaba Bosiyo we were shown the
graves of Moshesh and several of his brothers and sons, marked by rude
stones, with the name of each chief on his stone. But we were told that
in reality the bodies of Moshesh and of several of the others are not
here at all, having been dug up and reinterred more than a mile away
near the foot of the hill. Were the body under the stone, the ghost,
which usually dwells near the body, would be liable to be called up by
necromancers, and might be compelled to work mischief to the
tribe--mischief which would be serious in proportion to the power the
spirit possessed during life. Considering, however, that nearly all the
ancient world held similar beliefs, and that a large part of the modern
world, even in Europe, still clings to them, the persistence of these
interesting superstitions need excite no surprise, nor are they
productive of much practical ill, now that the witch-doctor is no longer
permitted to denounce men to death.

The material progress of the people has been aided by the enactment of
stringent laws against the sale of white men's intoxicating liquors,
though some of the chiefs show but a poor example of obedience to these
laws, the enforcement of which is rendered difficult by the illicit sale
which goes on along the frontiers where Basutoland touches the Free
State and the eastern part of Cape Colony. The old native arts and
industries decline as European goods become cheaper, and industrial
training has now become one of the needs of the people. It is an
encouraging sign that, under the auspices of Lerothodi, a sum of L3,184
sterling was collected from the tribe in 1895-6, for the foundation of
an institution to give such training. The receipts from import duties
have so much increased that the contribution of L18,000 paid by Cape
Colony is now annually reduced by nearly L12,000, and the hut tax, of
ten shillings per hut, now easily and promptly collected, amounts to
L23,000 a year, leaving a surplus, out of which L1,300 is paid to the
Cape. Basutoland is within the South African Customs Union.

These facts are encouraging. They show that, so far, the experiment of
leaving a native race to advance in their own way, under their o