APPEARANCE OF BASUTO--ALBINOS--NATIVE VILLAGES--HUTS--MANNER OF
LIVING--DRESS--ORNAMENTS.
The Basuto are a fine, well-proportioned race, though as a rule the men
are not so tall nor so well-built as the Zulus.
They are of a soft brown colour, with less protruding lips, and more
regular features than the Colonial Kaffir, and with far pleasanter
expressions; graceful and upright, with considerable intelligence, and
remarkably amiable. As a nation they are wonderfully honest and
trustworthy. They are far more "tillers of the soil" than men of battle,
preferring to live at peace with their neighbours to treading the war
path.
The women are good-natured and docile, slaves to their lord and master,
acknowledging his complete power and superiority over them with perfect
contentment. They naturally possess a certain amount of vanity, and, to
gratify it, will endure no small amount of pain in tattooing their
faces, but in this the men are not behindhand. As a rule, both sexes are
devoted to their children, who lead healthy, happy young lives, free
from care, not cumbered with over-much clothing, and with few duties or
restraints.
A strange feature of this race is the number of Albinos to be found in
it, and, since the white man became a familiar object to the Basuto,
these poor hideous creatures are, by many of their more fortunate
brethren, looked upon as quite lovely specimens of humanity. I know one
policeman, who told me with great pride that he had married a white
wife, who was very pretty. Would I not go to see her? I went, not quite
understanding, for I had only been a short time in the country, and it
was with great difficulty that I was able to disguise my feeling of
repulsion. She was indeed hideous, poor creature, yet she quite gave
herself the airs of a beauty, and smiled contentedly upon me, little
dreaming of the feelings she was awakening. Since then I have seen a
good many more, but never have I been able to conquer my strong dislike
to these most unnatural-looking beings. There is one grave fault about a
Mosuto, which is that he has no idea of truthfulness. To him it is no
crime to tell a lie--in fact, he finds it an absolutely necessary
virtue. It is at times quite ludicrous to hear the solemn and, to all
seeming, most truthful account given you about some small episode by an
open-faced, honest-looking Mosuto, when all the time you are in a
position to know that there is hardly a word of truth in what he is
saying. I have tried to make them understand how wrong it is to tell
such falsehoods, but, beyond a half shame-faced and wholly mischievous
smile, my words never seemed to have much effect.
The Basuto usually build their villages on the side of a mountain or
kopje, selecting situations which offer many natural means of defence.
Their huts are generally circular, sod-wall buildings, with thatch
roofs, and outside each hut, as a rule, is a sort of palisade of reeds
called a "skerm," in which all the cooking and frequently the eating
also takes place. When a man wanted to build a hut, in the days before
they adopted more civilized modes, and even now, in the more remote
parts of the country, he took a stick, to which he fastened a strip of
ox-hide, stuck the other end of the strip firmly in the ground with
another peg, and, with the stick in his hand, drew a complete circle; on
this line he raised the walls of his dwelling; these are made of square
sods, roughly dug off the surface of the ground and laid one on the top
of the other until the required height is reached. The walls are then
smeared over, inside and out, with wet clay, which is the women's work.
The woodwork of the roof is then laid on. It consists of branches of
trees interlaced and fastened securely at the top with grass rope. On
this the reeds are thickly laid and stitched down to the woodwork by
more grass rope. The inner walls of the hut are often ornamented by
rough scrollwork in different coloured clays. A small aperture serves
as window, and over the entrance is hung a reed mat, made by lashing
together with the sinews of cattle a number of dried reeds. The floors
are of mud, beaten down till perfectly hard and fairly even. They are
smeared over afresh every week or ten days, in order to preserve them,
and also as a matter of cleanliness, much as an English housewife scrubs
her floors. In the more wealthy dwellings the floors are from time to
time smeared over with bullock's blood. This gives them a dark, slightly
polished appearance, and makes them very much harder on the surface than
those of the poorer individuals, who have to content themselves with a
mixture of clay and manure from the cattle kraals. The original
furniture of a native hut consisted of a mat, similar to the one hung
over the entrance; a few skins, which answered the purpose of clothing
by day and bedding by night; a few earthenware pots and wooden spurtles,
or spoons, one or two horn spoons, often very prettily carved; and neat,
strong baskets of various shapes and sizes, but chiefly round, and
somewhat like an enlarged basin. The cooking was all done in the
earthenware pots until European traders introduced iron pots and
kettles.
The chief or headman lives in the centre circle of the village. All the
huts in the older villages are built in circles, one within another.
This was done as a means of guarding more securely the chief and his
family. As a rule, the chief has one or two buildings for his own
exclusive use, while his wives' huts are built either in a row or round
his own larger, more highly-finished dwellings. Each wife has a separate
hut, which is her own little kingdom.
Frequently the cattle kraal (a large enclosure) is found near the centre
of the village, and near it is the large hut called the "Khotla" or
Court, where the chief daily sits to administer justice (according to
his interpretation of the word). There is always a large open space in
front of the Khotla, where the people gather to hear the cases and to
discuss the various complaints or offences. The Basuto are wonderfully
given to long-winded discussions and explanations, and one would think a
chief needed the patience of many Jobs to listen, as he often has to do,
for hours at a time, to tedious and voluminous evidence from one man
after another about some paltry case which, in an European Court, would
be disposed of in a few moments.
The more civilized Basuto are rapidly learning to build square, stone
huts, more like European dwellings, as they have adopted European dress
and European household utensils; but the old native dwellings and dress
are, to my mind, infinitely more picturesque, and their native
ornaments, made of native metal, brass, iron, etc., infinitely more
interesting than the awful "Brummagem" atrocities sold to them by the
traders in the country.
I was much struck, when first I entered Basutoland, with the great
superiority of the Basuto villages to those of the colonial Kaffirs
which I had seen in the Eastern Province, both as regards cleanliness,
neatness and durability, and I was equally pleased with the Basuto
themselves, finding them both polite and obliging.
In the days before soap found its way into the country the people used
to wash themselves with pieces of white clay, rubbing it all over
themselves much as one rubs soap, or if they did not wish to use the
clay, they dug out a large bulb which they call "Khapompo." It is the
root of a broad-leafed plant, somewhat like a pineapple plant in shape,
and is very astringent. When first used it causes a rash to appear on
the surface of the skin, but after a few applications makes the skin
soft and smooth.
In the old days, and still amongst the wilder and less civilized Basuto,
the men's dress consisted of a kaross (letata), or blanket of skins,
which they wore with the fur inside and fastened on to the shoulder by a
couple of soft straps made of skin, and sewn firmly to the kaross with
ox sinews, the only cotton they know of. Their only other article of
clothing was a lamb skin strapped round their loins. The women wore
aprons of sheep skins, one skin being considered quite large enough,
while behind they tied an ox hide, cut into the shape of a circular
cloak. Above the waist they wore nothing, unless in very cold weather,
when they also wrapped themselves up in karosses. The little boys were,
and are, clad in nature's garb, pure and simple, until they attain the
age of twelve, when they adopt men's costumes.
The little girls from babyhood wear what they call "tetana," which is a
deep fringe made of a thin-leaved weed, called by them "tseketlane."
This they tie round their waists. To make it they take a strip of skin,
cured and softened, until it resembles chamois leather, cut this about
an inch broad, and wide enough to go easily round the child's hips, then
take a large quantity of the weed, tear off the two outer parts, leaving
only the back bone, as it were, which is about as thick as moderately
fine string. The women then roll this up and down on their well-greased
and red-clayed thighs, until it turns from a silvery white to a reddish
brown. Bunches of these they sew to the strap all the way round. Their
manner of sewing is naturally primitive. They make small sharp probes of
native metal; with these they pierce holes in the strap, and, dividing
the fringe in half, they tighten it "through the middle" on to the strap
by means of dried sinews, and let the top part of the fringe fall over
the lower part, thus making it of double thickness.
The kaross is made by sewing a number of skins together with sinew, the
skins as a rule being of rock rabbit, or small deer, and occasionally of
silver jackal. The skins are first dried, then rubbed over with powdered
sandstone till thoroughly clean and more pliable, then rubbed by hand,
always keeping the hands well greased, the greatest care being taken not
to spoil the fur or rub holes. This rubbing is continued until the whole
skin is thoroughly pliable and as soft as silk, by which time it is
ready to be sewn.
The original ornaments consisted of brass rings of various sizes, beaten
out to considerable width, and worn by the women round their necks;
bangles, roughly twisted, of brass, on the arms from the wrist almost up
to the elbow, and larger ones round the ankle and just below the knee;
and bangles made of soft iron about an inch and a half broad and roughly
carved by means of pieces of sharpened iron; also necklaces and bangles
of the heads of a grass rather resembling Kaffir corn in miniature.
These they used to plait very artistically, drying some in the huts in
order to preserve the green tint, and others outside in the sun so as
bleach them. Ornaments for dances consisted of, in addition to those
already mentioned, skins specially "scratched" by their needles into
artistic scrolls, circles, and crosses; anklets made of skin, into small
bags partially filled with small smooth pebbles, and wetted and allowed
to harden. These make a peculiar rustling rattle as the dancer moves.
The men also wear ox tails suspended from both elbows, both shoulders,
and both knees, and a head-dress made either of quantities of feathers,
and not unlike a busby, or one of the hair off many ox tails. They also
carry a shield made of hard stiff hide, and a long stick, straight and
beautifully polished, with a round knob at the top.
Men and women alike smear their bodies, faces, and hands with a mixture
of red clay and fat, but this is a general practice, and not only for
fête days, even the tiny babies being polished in this way.
For a girl the correct dancing costume consisted of the fringe round the
hips, the anklets of skin and pebbles, and a head-dress made of the
crest of the golden-crested crane and other crested birds. The married
women simply don their best skins and hold a more or less fantastic
stick in their hands.
Since European traders have settled in the country the Basuto have
taught themselves to make wire and bead necklaces and bangles of really
remarkable attractiveness, their bead work being most elaborate. To make
a bead necklace they will buy a quantity of different coloured beads,
which they thread on fine sinews, not in single rows, but in broad
patterns, sometimes two and three inches wide. Sometimes the colours are
worked alternately, sometimes in squares, and sometimes diagonally.
These are fastened by the sinew in the form of a loop on one side, and a
bunch of beads or a button on the other. The bangles are made of grass
plaited into a circular strand, on to which they string the beads until
the grass foundation is completely hidden. They also embroider their
skins with many coloured beads, and make a regular waistband of beads.
They make small brass buttons out of the soft native brass with which
they edge their "dresses."
The wire bangles are made of copper wire, brass wire, and aluminium wire
of various thickness (generally very fine). These wires are twisted
together, or plaited in the same way in which they plait their grass.
Some of them are remarkably pretty.
The brass neck ornaments are made out of the native metal, which is dug
out and melted, and then poured into a hollow previously made in a large
flat stone, and this forms it into a ring large enough to encircle a
woman's neck. Before the metal is cold it is polished with round smooth
stones, while still soft it is cut through at one end, and gently forced
open until the woman is able to insert her neck. It is then firmly
pressed together and held there until cold and hard. These ornaments are
called "lepetu," and are extremely difficult to remove. I once asked a
woman if her "lepetu" ever hurt her, she seemed much amused and
surprised at my question, and laughingly replied, "Certainly not." Their
manner of removing them is somewhat barbarous. The woman kneels down,
two reims or straps are put through each side, and a steady pull begins,
a man holding each reim. As soon as the opening is large enough, the
woman squeezes her neck out, and rises free from her bonds.