kotla

Four or five feet in front of my tent is placed the principal or kotla fire, the wood for which must be collected by the man who occupies the post of herald, and takes as his perquisite the heads of all the oxen slaughtered, and of all the game too.

Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa 2004

Near the centre of each circle of huts there is a spot called a “kotla”, with a fireplace; here they work, eat, or sit and gossip over the news of the day.

Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa 2004

The circle of huts immediately around the kotla of the chief is composed of the huts of his wives and those of his blood relations.

Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa 2004

Others rushed forward and kissed the hands and cheeks of the different persons of their acquaintance among us, raising such a dust that it was quite a relief to get to the men assembled and sitting with proper African decorum in the kotla.

Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa 2004

When both are in the kotla, the complainant stands up and states the whole case before the chief and the people usually assembled there.

Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa 2004

On the northern side I found the kotla of the elder Sekote, garnished with numbers of human skulls mounted on poles: a large heap of the crania of hippopotami, the tusks untouched except by time, stood on one side.

Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa 2004

I gave many public addresses to the people of Sesheke under the outspreading camel-thorn-tree, which serves as a shade to the kotla on the high bank of the river.

Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa 2004

So long as we continue to hold services in the kotla, the associations of the place are unfavorable to solemnity; hence it is always desirable to have a place of worship as soon as possible; and it is of importance, too, to treat such place with reverence, as an aid to secure that serious attention which religious subjects demand.

Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa 2004

When these articles are brought into the kotla, Sekeletu has the honor of dividing them among the loungers who usually congregate there.

Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa 2004

A poor man attaches himself to the kotla of a rich one, and is considered a child of the latter.

Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa 2004