and a mantle exactly like that of the women.  To assist in protecting the pores of the skin from the influence of the sun by day and of the cold by night, all smeared themselves with a mixture of fat and ochre; the head was anointed with pounded blue mica schist mixed with fat; and the fine particles of shining mica, falling on the body and on strings of beads and brass rings, were considered as highly ornamental, and fit for the most fastidious dandy.  Now these same people come to church in decent though poor clothing, and behave with a decorum certainly superior to what seems to have been the case in the time of Mr. Samuel Pepys in London.  Sunday is well observed, and, even in localities where no missionary lives, religious meetings are regularly held, and children and adults taught to read by the more advanced of their own fellow-countrymen; and no one is allowed to make a profession of faith by baptism unless he knows how to read, and understands the nature of the Christian religion.

The Bechuana Mission has been so far successful that, when coming from the interior, we always felt, on reaching Kuruman, that we had returned to civilized life.  But I would not give any one to understand by this that they are model Christians—­we can not claim to be model Christians ourselves—­or even in any degree superior to the members of our country churches.  They are more stingy and greedy than the poor at home; but in many respects the two are exactly alike.  On asking an intelligent chief what he thought of them, he replied, “You white men have no idea of how wicked we are; we know each other better than you; some feign belief to ingratiate themselves with the missionaries; some profess Christianity because they like the new system, which gives so much more importance to the poor, and desire that the old system may pass away; and the rest—­a pretty large number—­profess because they are really true believers.”  This testimony may be considered as very nearly correct.

There is not much prospect of this country ever producing much of the materials of commerce except wool.  At present the chief articles of trade are karosses or mantles—­the skins of which they are composed come from the Desert; next to them, ivory, the quantity of which can not now be great, inasmuch as the means of shooting elephants is sedulously debarred entrance into the country.  A few skins and horns, and some cattle, make up the remainder of the exports.  English goods, sugar, tea, and coffee are the articles received in exchange.  All the natives of these parts soon become remarkably fond of coffee.  The acme of respectability among the Bechuanas is the possession of cattle and a wagon.  It is remarkable that, though these latter require frequent repairs, none of the Bechuanas have ever learned to mend them.  Forges and tools have been at their service, and teachers willing to aid them, but, beyond putting together a camp-stool, no effort has ever been made to acquire