of the new faith should take parts in two ceremonies connected with rain-magic; first, in the letshulo-hunt, appointed by the rain-doctors for the capture of certain wild animals, parts of which were employed in the incantations; and, secondly, in turning up a plot of ground for the service of the doctors, which was afterwards considered consecrated, and called “tsimo ea pulta,” the garden of the rain. To both these demands the converts again resolutely refused to submit, giving the king to understand that while they were ready to submit to any other proof of their loyalty, since they had become “bathu ba lehuku” their consciences would not allow them to participate in the idolatrous usages of their forefathers.
Again thwarted, the king was driven to devise some other measures for bringing the recusants to obedience; the constitutional form of his government, and the large numbers of the adherents of the new creed both making it difficult to bring the offenders to justice. He soon tried another scheme. On the following Saturday, when both Molema and Yan had gone away into the country, he issued an order, and caused it to be circulated through the town, that no person would be allowed to attend the church on the next day. The women took up the matter; aware that Christianity raised them to an equality with their husbands, they came to the unanimous decision that no notice was to be taken of the king’s order. Accordingly, Sunday came, and at the hour of service not a member of the congregation was absent from his usual place. The
