Every man in a tribe feels himself bound to tell the chief everything that comes to his knowledge, and, when questioned by a stranger, either gives answers which exhibit the utmost stupidity, or such as he knows will be agreeable to his chief. I believe that in this way have arisen tales of their inability to count more than ten, as was asserted of the Bechuanas about the very time when Sechele’s father counted out one thousand head of cattle as a beginning of the stock of his young son.2

2Livingstone, D., n/an/an/an/an/a 1. 36.