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 cases they are accountable to the head governor of the Barotse, who is regarded as ranking next to the king. In Sepopo’s time this office was filled by Inkambella.

Officials of the third grade were such as held control as deputy-viceroys over separate towns or small villages where cattle-breeding, hunting, or fishing, was carried on in behalf of the king. Their principal duty was to look to the proper payment of the royal tribute; the contribution of cereal products was ordinarily sent to the koshi, who were responsible for forwarding it to the sovereign. It is the law of the land that when a vassal kills a head of game, and even when a freeman slaughters any of his own cattle, the breast must be given to the kosana, or must be sent to the koshi if he should happen to be in the neighbourhood, or must be reserved for the king himself when the royal residence is within reach. The law likewise demands that all matters of importance should be submitted at once to the deputies, who refer them to their superiors to transmit, if need be, to the king himself.

Dignitaries of what I have called the fourth class comprise what may be designated as the king’s privy-council. Nominally they are reputed to rank below the koshi, but practically the monarch holds them as their superiors; they include the state executioner, five or six private physicians, the royal cup-bearer, one or two detectives, the superintendent of the fishermen, and the overseer of the canoes. There was likewise a kind of council belonging to Moquai. Although the king had virtually withdrawn the sovereignty from his daughter, the Mabunda