head-man's connection "with a chief is not proclaimed by his attendants, you may hear him whispering, "Tell him who I am." This usually involves a counting on the fingers of a part of his genealogical tree ; and ends in the important announcement that he is half-cousin to some well-known ruler. The governnent is patriarchal, each man being, by virtue of paternity, chief of his own children, and the greater their number the more his importance increases. The towns are formed of numerous circle of huts, and near the centre of each circle there is a spot called a "kotla," with a fireplace ; here they work, eat, or sit and gossip over the news of the day. A poor man attaches himself to the kotla of a rich one, and is considered a child of the latter. The circle of an underchief is girt by a number of subsidiary circles, and in the middle of all is the great circle of the principal chief, composed of the huts of his wives and blood relations.
On the first occasion in which I ever attempted to hold a public religious service, Sechele remarked that it was the custom of his nation to put questions when any new subject was brought before them. He then inquired if my forefathers knew of a future judgment. I replied in the affirmative, and began to describe the scene of the "great white throne, and Him who shall sit on it, from whose face the heaven and earth shall flee away," &c. "You startle me," he replied; "these words make all my bones to shake ; I have no more strength in me : but my forefathers were living at the same time yours were, and how is it that they did not send them word about these terrible things sooner? They all passed away into darkness without knowing whither they were going." I explained the geographical barriers in the North, and the gradual spread of knowledge from the South, to which we first had access by means of ships; adding my belief that, as Christ had declared, the whole world would be enlightened by the Gospel. Pointing to the great Kalahari desert, he replied," You never can cross that country to the tribes beyond; it is utterly impossible even for us black men, except in certain seasons, when more than the usual supply of rain falls, and an extraordinary growth of water-melons follows."
As soon as he had an opportunity of learning, he set himself to read with such close application that, from being
