CHAPTER 64
ANCIENT SEATS
In the past people used to sit on goat skins, except the senior chiefs who usually sat on the skins of wild animals, such as cobus-cobs, hartebeest, etc. Some other senior rulers sat on well-made stools which used to be made out of musita trees and had four legs.
There used to be a rule observed by the general public that a lay man (normally a ‘mukopi’) or a chief who only ruled a small area, were never allowed to sit on a stool. If it was known that a person in the above category was using a stool or had one in his home, his property was taken away from him or else he was dismissed from controlling his area. Later all chiefs were permitted to acquire stools for sitting on as time went by, the lay men were also allowed to use them.
Everyone used to have a seat of this kind in his home and when he happened to go on a visit to his friends, he was accompanied by a servant or his child, who carried a skin—seat on his back for his master to sit on. A host never offered a seat to his guest even if that guest was in a superior position. If a person had neither a servant nor a child to carry the skinseat for him when he was going anywhere, he carried it himself under his armpits. A skin-seat was carried everywhere as no one liked to sit on the ground, and when stools became popular, it was the usual thing.
Women did not sit on these kinds of seats except highly respectable ladies who owned stools which were carried by their house-girls or servants wherever the ladies went. Other women, even if they were the wives of chiefs, were not permitted to sit on such seats although they could sit on bark cloths, as in the case of brides, or on special occasions which did not warrant sitting on mere ground. However, all women who were ‘Abasweezi’ (practised godism) used to have their own skin-seats because of the gods whom they served they were treated as men although some of them were married. Every time a woman of this nature was in action, i.e. having her god ascending on her head, she was treated as a man, even, if she had a husband, but at that particular moment she was the Almighty, having control over her husband until such time that the god dismounted and was gone. When that happened and all the articles pertaining to the performance removed, then that woman resumed her ordinary status of a married woman, observing the restrictions the same as other ordinary women in the country.