They could not cure him, and pronounced the disease
incurable. An old doctress from the Manyeti tribe had
come to see what she could do for him, and on her skill
he now hung his last hopes. She allowed no one to see
him, except his mother and uncle, making entire seclusion
from society an essential condition of the much longed-for
cure. He sent, notwithstanding, for the Doctor; and on
the following day we all three were permitted to see him.
He was sitting in a covered wagon, which was enclosed by
a high wall of close-set reeds; his face was only slightly
disfigured by the thickening of the skin in parts, where
the leprosy had passed over it; and the only peculiarity
about his hands was the extreme length of his fingernails,
which, however, was nothing very much out of the way,
as all the Makololo gentlemen wear them uncommonly long.
He has the quiet, unassuming manners of his father, Sebi-
tuane, speaks distinctly, in a low pleasant voice, and appears
to be a sensible man, except perhaps on the subject of his
having been bewitched; and in this, when alluded to, he
exhibits as firm a belief as if it were his monomania.
Moriantsiane, my aunt s husband, tried the bewitching
medicine first on his wife, and she is leprous, and so is her
bead-servant; then, seeing that it succeeded, he gave me a
stronger dose in the cooked flesh of a goat, and I have had
the disease ever since. They have lately killed Ponwane,
and, as you see, are now killing me.” Ponwane had died of
fever a short time previously. Sekeletu asked us for medicine
and medical attendance, but we did not like to take
the case out of the hands of the female physician already
employed, it being bad policy to appear to undervalue any
of the profession; and she, being anxious to go on with her
remedies, said “ She had not given him up yet, but would
try for another month ; if he was not cured by that time,
then she would hand him over to the white doctors.” But
we intended to leave the country before a month was up;
so Mamire, with others, induced the old lady to suspend
her treatment for a little. She remained, as the doctors
stipulated, in the Chiefs establishment, and on full pay.
Sekeletu was told plainly that the disease was unknown
in our country, and was thought exceedingly obstinate of
cure; that we did not believe in his being bewitched, and
we were willing to do all we could to help him. This was
a case for disinterested benevolence; no pay was expected,
but considerable risk incurred ; yet we could not decline it,
as we had thè trading in horses. Having, however, none
of the medicines usually employed in skin-diseases with
us, we tried the local application of lunar caustic, and
hydriodate of potash internally ; and with such gratifying
results, that Mamire wished the patient to be smeared all
over with a solution of lunar caustic, which he believed to
be of the same nature as the- blistering fluid formerly applied
to his own knee by Mr. Oswell. Its power he considered
irresistible, and he would fain have had anything like
it tried on Sekeletu.
The disease begins with slight discoloration of the surface,
and at first affects only the cuticle, the patches spreading
in the manner, and with somewhat of the appearance,
of lichens, as if it were a fungus ; small vesicles rise at
the outer edges of the patches, and a discharge from the
vesicles forms scabs. The true skin next thickens and
rises in nodules, on the forehead, nose, and ears ; and, when
the disease is far advanced, foul fissures appear on the toes
and fingers ; these eventually drop off, and sometimes the deformed
patient recovers. The natives believe it to be herei
n