Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/386

 But without a good makogana or overlooker the case is very different. Then the traveller, especially a white man, is exposed to all sorts of annoyances, and not only will the servants do all in their power to hinder his progress, but the more indulgently he acts, the worse they will be. The baggage is generally carried on their heads, or on a stick placed across the shoulder, very heavy packages being conveyed on a long pole by two or four men. They travel on an average at the rate of nearly three miles an hour. On the river, boats make from three and a half to four and a half miles against the stream, and from five and a half to seven miles with the stream, if unimpeded by rapids, and not interfered with by hippopotamuses.

When travelling alone the natives take very few provisions. The small two-oared boats that convey the corn-tribute to Sesheke are nearly always so heavily laden that the boatmen take nothing with them but a httle fish, satisfied to get what food they can upon their way by gathering wild fruits from the banks, and by knocking over with their thoboni-sticks, which they use with an aim that seldom errs, some of the birds in the rushes, which their noiseless advance allows them to approach without disturbing.

The administration of justice in the Marutse kingdom is a topic not without its interest. By the formation of the greater council the cause of judicial equity was materially advanced, but unfortunately this institution, founded by a constitutional ruler now long deceased, has latterly lost much of its prestige, and has received almost its death-blow under the despotism of Sepopo. For the last ten years