Sepopo

“ Sepopo began to besiege Blockley with question after question, and as I was not sufficiently versed in the Sesuto-Serotse dialect to follow their conversation, I entertained myself by criticizing the company. Presently the crowd opened to admit a young man, preceded by a herald, and carrying a great wooden dish which, after making an obeisance, he placed on the open space between us and the king. The odour was quite sufficient to make us aware that the dish contained broiled fish. Sepopo picked out a fish at random and handed it to the chiefs Kapella and Mashoku, who had to eat a portion of it ”

“ Blockley returned from Panda ma Tenka on the 9th. I was much pleased to greet once more a man who had shown me so much kindness; and I accompanied him when he paid his visit to Sepopo.
The king at length rejoiced my heart by acceding to my long-cherished wishes; he told me that Moquai and the queens who had come from the Barotse country were about to return, and that I was at liberty to go with them. Fellow-travellers more influential than these distinguished ladies could not be desired.
On my next visit to Sepopo I found the royal courtyard crowded with people. ”

“ The party consisted of a chieftain named Moia and several adherents. Moia was the brother of Kapella, Sepopo’s commander-in-chief, and had been condemned to death by Sepopo about a year before. Some liquid had been poured in front of the king’s residence, and as the king was feeling more than usually unwell, he came at once to the conclusion that he had been bewitched, and Moia’s enemies had taken advantage of the circumstance to charge him with the deed, the consequence being that in order to escape being sentenced to be burnt or poisoned he had to fly the country. ”

“ These men had always to be up and to complete their work before any one was stirring; and occasionally they had to remove corpses out of the thoroughfares, as Sepopo regarded all dead bodies, except those of his own people at the court, merely as offal, and gave orders that they should be treated as other rubbish. ”

“ They enjoyed a kind of hereditary reputation, as in spite of the atrocities which they were known to have encouraged, they were regarded by the various tribes with awe rather than with hatred. That there had not been a revolt long ago against Sepopo’s tyranny was mainly to be attributed to the belief that he had those in his secret council who could divine any plot beforehand and frustrate any stratagem that could be devised, and even when his despotism grew so great that the life of the highest in the kingdom was not secure for a day, not a man could be found to lift an assegai against him. ”

“ Long established customs, having the sanction of law, are fondly clung to by the natives, who naturally resent any interference with their privileges, and it was Sepopo’s attempt to suppress the ancient usages that first estranged him from his subjects. ”

“ The king’s daughter, Moquai, had married Manengo, one of the few Makololos who had survived the general massacre. The king of the Makololos, Sepopo informed me, had died a miserable death, his body having become a mass of ulcers, and after his demise the whole tribe had been distracted by party squabbles. ”

“ This man has now come to settle here with you in Sesheke; but he is old, very old, and his relations are far away in the Barotse.” Sepopo nodded to signify that he quite understood the story. While he had been listening, his eye had again and again glanced towards a distant quarter, where the general crowd were gathered; and when the chief ceased to speak, the king cried out “Mashoku!” In an instant the executioner hastened towards him and received his commission to take care that the old man should no longer be permitted to be a burden to the neighbourhood. ”

“ It is a country inhabited by a poisonous insect, where people cannot breed cattle, excepting in the next neighbourhood of Shesheke, and he preferred those parts only to be nearer to our traders. But Sepopo was killed in 1876, and the people who came from the West coast and had great influence with the advisers and counsellors of the new king, recommended the new man not to deal with our traders, and since that time our trade has decreased. ”

“ In 1875 Sepopo appointed his little daughter of six years of age to be queen at his own demise; by right his eldest daughter Moquai should have been nominated, but as she had been formally designated as the proper sovereign of the Mabundas, he feared that she already had too many friends and supporters in that district, to make it advisable for him to name her as successor to the joint kingdom. The king’s principal wife is always called “the mother of the country.” ”

“ A seducer of any of the royal wives is at once handed over to the executioner’s assistants, with the instruction that he is “to be sent to fetch buffalo-meat for the king,” meaning that he is to be taken to the woods, and there assegaied. The mode of dealing with an adulterous wife may be illustrated by Sepopo’s proceedings with Sitan. He ordered a number of canoes full of people to push off into the middle of the stream, taking his place in one of them with the culprit. ”

“ Marutse king. Captain McLeod informed me that he had killed an elephant with tusks weighing 100 lbs., and that Sepopo had taken them, under a promise to give him two others instead on his return to Sesheke.
We were entertained at one of Makumba’s residences with butshuala (kaffir-corn beer) , which was brought in wooden bowls, and served out in gourd-shell cups. He was a staunch supporter of the king, and ultimately lost his life in his service. ”

“ The women were divided amongst the conquerors, the king having his first choice of the most attractive; the chiefs took the next pick, leaving the rest to be distributed amongst their subjects. From that time women of brown complexion have been found amongst the Bathowanas and people north of the Zambesi, though the dark-skinned tribes always regard it as a sign of degeneration of race. Sepopo subsequently took possession of the whole of the Makololo country, with the exception of the eastern Bamashi territory and their land south of the Chobe, where he did not enter from fear of the Matabele. ”

“ He gave me all the latest news, and said that the disposition to revolt, and the determination to dethrone the king, were fast gaining ground among the chiefs. A recent proceeding on Sepopo’s part had done much to accelerate the growth of the general disaffection. In his rage at Kapella’s flight, he had not only, as usual, vented his temper on his attendants by laying about him with his kiri, but he had openly declared his intention of preparing a charm which should have such an effect upon the senses of the fugitives that they would be sure to make their way back to Sesheke ”

“ A few evenings afterwards Diamond came to me in great haste, and told me that two Marutse men had just come in search of Kapella and Moia, with strict orders from Sepopo to kill them at once if they could find them. ”

“ Nearly the whole of these which I have thus briefly enumerated are, with the marked distinction of the Marutse, held as vassals, the people being treated to a certain degree as slaves. However it is not more than a quarter of them who actually pay any tribute, these being chiefly the eastern tribes, such as the Batokas, eastern Makalakas and Mabimbis. As a consequence of Sepopo’s oppression, many of the natives have withdrawn from the kingdom, generally going south, and the difficulty of collecting tribute anywhere has very greatly increased. ”

“ The prevalence of superstition is no doubt the principal and most serious obstacle to the intellectual development of the Marutse-Mabunda tribes. It was the awe with which his subjects regarded him that enabled Sepopo, in spite of his atrocities, so long to maintain his power over them; the aged doctors that he kept about him never failed to inculcate the most superstitious notions upon the people, and the influence they exercised was very largely increased by the manifest efficacy of many of the remedies they used ”

“ All hair was carefully removed from every part of their bodies, except the top of the skull, where it was mounted up in a very remarkable fashion.
The Mashukulumbe, Sepopo informed me, were the people who lived to the north and east of his territory; and the men who had now arrived were ambassadors who were sent every year to the Marutse court with complimentary presents, and who would go back in a few weeks carrying other presents in return. When at home they go perfectly naked, the women wearing nothing but a little leather strap, hung with bells and fastened round their waists. ”

“ In the course of that day the king sent a boat to convey Blockley and Bauren to Impalera, to enable them to start on their trading-expedition to the territory of the Makololo prince Wankie. The offer, however, of a single boat to carry a white man, several servants, and all the merchandise, was regarded by Blockley as little less than an insult, and did not tend to heal the unpleasantness which Sepopo’s recent want of courtesy and consideration had provoked. ”

“ It is high treason for any subject to retain possession of an article that is either more handsome or more valuable than what belongs to the king, and anything of exceptional quality, whether it has been purchased from neighbouring tribes or from white men, or even manufactured in the country, belongs to the king, or at least is free for him to claim as a matter of course. I could not offer anybody a present of anything the least unusual without finding it invariably refused, the excuse being that no one dared to take for himself what he was not quite sure that Sepopo already possessed. ”

“ A man who was standing near attempted to interfere, but nothing could pacify the anger of the infuriated girl; she persisted in administering chastisement, and was not deterred from her violence till she had actually snatched off the leather apron from the victim’s loins.
The same evening I was again invited to supper with the king. On this occasion an episode took place which unfortunately was by no means rare in Sepopo’s court, and which serves to illustrate his habitual cruelty. It was about an hour after sundown, and there was no lack of merriment in the royal enclosure. ”

“ O Sappho, why art thou ever
Singing with praises the blessed
Queen of the heaven?
Why does the heart in thy bosom
Ever revert in its yearning
Throb to the Goddess?
Why are thy senses unsated
Ever in quest of elusive
Love that is deathless?
Ah, gracious Daughter of Cyprus,
Never can I as a mortal
Tire of thy service.
Thou art the breath of my body,
The blood in my veins, and the glowing
Pulse of my bosom.
Omnipotent, burning, resistless,
Thou art the passion that shaking
Masters me ever. ”

“ Poised near the surface of the water, like a hawk in the air, the Sepia moves gently to and fro by graceful undulations of [Pg 20] its lateral fins,—an exquisite play of colour occasionally taking place over its beautifully barred and mottled back. When thus tranquil, its eight pedal arms are usually brought close together, and droop in front of its head, like the trunk of an elephant, shortened; its two longer tentacular arms being coiled up within their pouches and unseen. Only when some small fish approaches it does it arouse itself. ”

“ Here Sappho was the acknowledged queen of song—revered, studied, imitated, served, adored by a little court of attendants and disciples, loved and hymned by Alcæus, and acclaimed by her fellowcraftsmen throughout Greece as the wonder of her age. That all the tributes of her contemporaries show reverence not less for her personality than for her genius is sufficient answer to the calumnies with which the ribald jesters of that later period, the corrupt and shameless writers of Athenian comedy, strove to defile her fame. ”

“ Amongst those captives was Zepho, son of Eliphaz, son of Esau.
Even in Joseph’s lifetime, the Edomites made incursions into Egypt to recover their captive relatives, but their attempts led to no other result than the tightening of the chains which bound the captives. Later, however, Zepho succeeded in effecting his escape, and he took refuge with Angias, king of Dinhaba (Ethiopia) , who made him chief captain of his host.
Zepho persuaded the king to make war upon Egypt. Among the servants of Angias was a youth of fifteen, named Balaam, son of Beor, very skilful in the arts of witchcraft. ”

“ Then the white men fell upon the people of Gopani-Kufa and slew them together with the chief and his daughter Shasasa; and since then all the power of the Earth has rested in the hands of the white men, for they have in their possession Sipao, the Magic Mirror.
Story of the King Who Would See Paradise
Once upon a time there was king who, one day out hunting, came upon a fakeer in a lonely place in the mountains. The fakeer was seated on a little old bedstead reading the Koran, with his patched cloak thrown over his shoulders. ”

“ The other Sappho declared that she was the true, the only Sappho who had existed; that she was born at Erise, in the time of the elder Tarquin, king of Rome; that she had married Cersyla, of Andros, one of the ancestors of the muse Clio; and that she had composed poems of different kinds. The claims of Sappho of Mitylene were then recognized, and the other forbidden to assume this name, or any work thereunto appertaining, because the property of a wife belonged to her husband: and according to the laws of all nations, her acts ought to appear in his name. ”

“ Sappho, of Lesbos, stands on the brink of the cliff, and at her feet kneels Phaon, of Mitylene. As they gaze seaward a group of young shepherds pass from the Temple, and a voice in the distance is heard singing. ”