CHAPTER XIII.
THABA 'NCHO.
The name written above is to be pronounced Tabaancho and
belongs to one of the most interesting places in South Africa.
Thaba 'Ncho is a native town in which live about 6,000
persons of the Baralong tribe under a Chief of their own and
in accordance with their own laws. There is nothing like
this elsewhere on the continent of South Africa, or, as I
believe, approaching it. Elsewhere it is not the custom of
the South African Natives to live in towns. They congregate
in kraals, more or less large,—which kraals are villages surrounded
generally by a fence, and containing from three or
four huts up to perhaps a couple of hundred. Each hut has
been found to contain an average of something less than four
persons. But Thaba 'Ncho is a town, not fenced in, with
irregular streets, composed indeed of huts, but constructed
with some idea of municipal regularity. There has been no
counting of these people, but from what information I could
get I think I am safe in saying that as many as 6,000 of them
live at Thaba 'Ncho. There are not above half-a-dozen
European towns in South Africa which have a greater number
of inhabitants, and in the vicinity of Thaba 'Ncho there are
other Baralong towns or villages,—within the distance of
