Their bodies were painted with white, red and yellow day.
As the dancers whirled round, their tails and the ostrich
feathers flew out at right angles with the body, and their
great object seemed to be that of preventing them from collapsing,
and of keeping them extended horizontally in
every attitude and motion of the body. Their movements
were accompanied with a rude and boisterous song, which
ceased a t intervals, when the women who did not dance
responded in a softer kind of antistrophe, which was not by
any means void of melody. The same women bestowed
also on the dancers frequent marks of applause, by the clapping
of hands. The dancing being ended, a refreshment
consisting of boiled beef and Kaffer corn (holcus) boiled in
milk was served round to the guests; after which the bridegroom,
who was one of the dancers, led home his bride, and
the company retired to their respective dwellings, apparently
well satisfied with the diversions of the day.
The regularity and decorum with which they conducted
themselves at this ceremony, and indeed on all occasions
impressed the commissioners with a very favourable opinion
of the character of the Booshuanas, which was not diminished
by the uninterrupted harmony that seemed to prevail in this
happy society. Moolihaban and the elders of the town occasionally
met to settle any little disputes that might sometimes
happen, and which are unavoidable in so large a community.
The system on which their government is founded appears
to be completely patriarchal, • and the Chief must of course
7
be a man idolized by the people; and the consequence is,
that he has the nomination of a successor. From the elders
of the society he is informed of the general sentiments of the
p eo p le a n d with their advice such rules and regulations are
framed or altered as are best calculated to give general satisfaction,
and consequently to make himself popular. No
young man can be admitted into the King’s council, which is
established on the principles of true primitive simplicity,
when, in almost every nation and language, age and authority
were synonymous terms. I f any man in the society feels
himself aggrieved, and is not satisfied with the decision of the
council, he is at full liberty to settle his affairs and leave the
horde with his whole property.
I t does not appear that they have any particular form of
religious worship, in the strict sense of the term as applied
by Europeans, though, as a custom handed down from their
forefathers, they religiously observe the practising of circumcision
on,all male children, and of dancing in a circle the
whole night of the full moon. Few nations are so savage as
not to be conscious that there is a power which directs the
operations of nature, which is infinitely superior to themselves,
and to whose1 influence they are subject. Some nations
have ascribed to this power a variety of attributes in the
same individual, and others- have-' supposed a distinct person
presiding over each attribute. Most have acknowledged a
good and an evil spirit: the one recognised in the cheering,
warmth of the sun, in the soft sil very light of the moon, and
in fertilizing showers; the other in the terrific roar of thunder,