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.”
The king holds the offices of chief doctor and chief magician, and under the cloke of these two arts, he works upon the credulity of the people by the most hideous crimes, being himself quite aware of the hollowness of his pretences.
Large sources of revenue are open to the king of the Marutse people. Besides his own extensive territories, which are cultivated partly by colonies of subjects, and partly by the royal wives with their staff of labourers, the direct taxes, which include contributions of every article which a prince can require, yield an immense revenue. As a consequence, moreover, of ivory and india-rubber, the staple commodities of the country, being crown property, the king is the chief merchant, and from time to time he makes large purchases of goods to the amount of 3000l. to 5000l., which he gives away to the people who reside near him, or to the chiefs or subjects who may happen to visit him, always stipulating that any guns that may be distributed shall be considered not given, but lent. Notwithstanding his wealth, it will often happen that the king looks with a covetous eye upon some property, perhaps a fine herd of cattle, belonging to one of his more well-to-do subjects, and although he considers he has a perfect right to it, he hardly likes to carry it off by force, but proceeds to get the owner convicted of treason or witchcraft, and put to death, after which he appropriates to himself the property he wants.
Quite undisputed is the king’s power to put to death, or to make a slave of any one of his subjects
