in any way he chooses; he may take a man’s wife simply by providing him with another wife as a substitute, and he is quite at liberty to demand any children he may wish to devote to the purposes of his magic. Reigning queens may choose any husband they like, perfectly regardless of the consideration whether he is married or not. 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.
In their style of building, as in other respects, the Marutse-Mabunda people surpass most of the tribes south of the Zambesi. This remark, however, applies only to the stationary tribes, and does not include the temporary erections put up by those who come for hunting and fishing, either on their own sites or in places marked out for them by the chief or king; such structures are generally found on the riverbanks, or on wooded slopes, or in glades where game is likely to resort; but the permanent settlements are scattered over the kingdom, the larger towns being mainly in the Barotse country. The houses in these established towns are as a general rule equally strong and comfortable, and they have the advantage of being very quickly constructed. It may be said
