The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-11-22
THE MATABELE.
A SOUTH AFRICAN NATION on
THIEVES AND BEGGARS.
Every One Save tho King Takes q
Hand In Begging and Stealing
Their Military System
and Superstitions.

are thievish as gypsies, and for im-
Fortunate demands for gratuities dis
count the lazzaronf of Naples. These
practices are characteristic of all
from the highest to the lowest.
Indunas of the most elevated rank
attach no idea of shame to the act Of
stealing, nor is it beneath the dignity
of member of the Kings council to- :
spend hours day after day In begging
from a white mans camp. They look
upon the white man solely as q con-.
venientrepository of desirable articles,
which can be begged or stolen from
him without scruple OF loss of self
respect. Their conversation in his.
tent consists mainly Of entreaties that
he will do himself the honor of COM
ferring upon them guns, or jam, or
his hat, OF his boots, or anything that
is his. If he neglects to watch them
shortly after their departure some
thing or other will surely be, missing
it may be spoons, or q few knives, OF q
small ak, or iar Of preserves, or
some other little keepsake of the kind.
In the whole Matabele Nation there
is said to be "only one man who does
not beg of the white man, and that one
is the King. But then there is little
that he can want. He has such num-
bers of cattle that many Of them die
yearly of old age; his people keep
him well supplied with corn and beer,i
the subject tribes who own his rule
send him tribute in ivory, skins, and
articles of native manufacture every
white man who enters the country
brings him presents of guns, blankets,
powder, champagne, while from the !,
concessionaires to whom he has grant
ed mining rights he receives good,
round sum in English sovereigns, paid
to him at each new moon. he has
troops of slaves. Whatever skilled
labor he may require for thatching,
painting, gun mending, and the like
is supplied generally for nothing by
the white men who live in the coun-
try. Whenever he needs cloth OF
beads for the replenishment Of the
wardrobes of his eighty odd wives he
sends down an order, and generally g..
large one, to the traders iat the store,E
who cannot well refuse to supply him."
It appears that the King does some
times pay for the goods which he has
ordered, but meyer until a long while
after he has received them, and this
life of the white trader in Matabeland
is described as anything but prosper
GUS and satisfactory. Z. 81 Gl
The military system of the Nation Id I
still much the same as that of the Zu-
lus, from whom the Matabele are de-, !
scended. When the king wishes to
raise new regiment he calls out q
number of the young men. Certain
lands are allotted to them. FlockS
and herds are given them, which the
regiment keep up for it's own benefit.
The regiment builds it's own kraal, has
it's own induna, and lives there under
his command till such time as itE
members, having seen sufficient ,servj
ice, ;:::c given their head-rings by the
King, allowed to marry and to retire
into the reserve and live anywhere
they please. Till the soldiers get their
head-rings they are known as mataka,.
or ssyoung braves" After they have
got them they are madoda, or men. I
One of tue most general supershy
tions is m earnest belief in witches
and witchcraft. This is part of the re-:
ligion of the Matabele and the prac-
tice of smelling out" the witches and
the attendant massacre of the latter
has caused much trouble to the English
authorities in African stations. Nor
is it only the accused man who suffers.
His wives, his relations, his slaves, and
sometimes his cattle are on occasions
slaughtered Fith him. The terror of,
witchcraft which prompts these mas
sacrcs applies generally to all agencies
which the natives do not understand
and over which they have no control!
But, curjously, while they fear the
spells of their own people, they do not
apparently entertain any fear that the
white men will bewitch them. It is
said that the Matabele are beginning
to recognize the superior efficiency of
the white mans medicine, and that.
his usually gratuitous practice serij
ously interferes with that of the old
established herb doctors who expect
to be feed. ...
TIE King himself does what little
rain doctoring the climate requires
and on Que occasion ordered the cessa-
ton of revolver practice in the Euro
pean settlers camp lest the sound OF
the guns should frighten the rain away
when he was engaged in his incanta-
tions. The ''magic broth" which the
witch doctors brew is still sometimes
sprinkled on the trees and the Kings
kraal and wagons, and even on the
royal person of the King himself, I'D
time of war in order to preserve them
from c7il influences and to make the
bullets Of the eneinp miss fro. u
It is wonderful how this NationS
small Us it is, has managed to make its
name dreaded from the borders OF
British Bcchuanaland right up to the
Zambcsi, and from tho lake to the
country claimed by the Portuguese.
For the Matabele Nation in itself is in
significant OF the inhabitants OF
Mstablc proper j. strip of country
about 100 miles long by fifty broad.
which would include ell the kraals OF
tho Matabele rs distinguished from
their subject races, the Makalaka and
Mashona), two out of every three are
sla7es. IN tho very heart of the Meta
II IL l.