“George,” they said, “is treating the king like a child.” “Yes,” replied Westbeech; “I have been trusted by Moselikatze himself to drive his waggon and treat him as a child; and surely if I may do this with Moselikatze, I may do it with his son too; I am treating Lo Bengula as my child.” The answer seemed thoroughly to satisfy the chiefs, and they clapped their hands in applause.
I asked the Masupia servant whom Westbeech had taken with him to Gubuluwayo, whether the Matabele women were handsome? “O, not at all,” was his answer; “they wear no aprons, and are not tattooed.” Their well-built forms and comely features had evidently made no impression upon the man.
Before closing my notes about Tati, I cannot help mentioning an incident that occurred in Pit Jacobs’ house, in February, 1876. Jacobs himself, with two of his sons and his elder daughter, had gone on a hunting-excursion to South Matabele-land, leaving his wife, his younger daughter, just now married to Mr. Brown, his two little boys, and a Masarwa servant in the house. The house was what is locally known as a “hartebeest” building, its four walls consisting of laths plastered over with red brick earth, and covered in with a gabled roof made of rafters thatched with grass. Inside, of the same material as the walls, was a partition dividing the house into two apartments, of which the larger was the living-room, and the other the sleeping-chamber of the family. In the larger room, amongst other furniture, stood a sewing-machine that Mr. Brown had just bought as a present for his intended wife; in the other room, opposite the door, were two beds.
