Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/184

 The libeko used by the Bantu tribes in the place of our pocket-handkerchief is a miniature shovel made of very different sizes, being from half an inch to an inch wide, but varying from two inches to ten inches in length. It is usually attached to a small strap or a chain of grass or beads, and its effect is not only to widen the nostrils, but to disfigure the countenance generally.

As the afternoon was advancing, the king rose, and attended by his vocal and instrumental performers, led the way to the landing-place, where we all embarked in three canoes for an airing on the water. We were not long upon the main stream before we turned into a lagoon, whence, after about a quarter of an hour, we entered another side lagoon, which brought us to the landing-place of Old Sesheke. This town, which the king was now leaving for his new settlement, was on the border of a sandy wood, and scarcely twenty-five feet above the valley. Close to it, built of wood or reeds, were the storehouses in which Westbeech put his goods until Sepopo was ready to pay for them in ivory. The courtyard contained three huts, one occupied by Westbeech’s cook, one by his other servants, and a third used as his kitchen. Behind his own little house, and between it and the hedge, stood a fourth hut, about five feet high and seven feet in diameter, similar in shape to a Koranna hut, with a doorway that could only be entered on all fours. This was assigned to me during my residence in the king’s domains.

Before I took possession of my mansion, I was invited, Blockley with me, to join the king at supper. He was in a little cemented courtyard sitting on a