Mfecane: The chronicles of the lioness and the ten orbs-Book1: First Encounters

Chapter 3: Meriting Go Ramotse

Meriting has always been the royal abode of the kings of the Bataung nation. However, in the reign of Ramotse and that of his two ancestors, Meriting was the envy of all villages in the southern regions of Puntu.

Meriting is a hive of activity as people go about their daily lives. Ramotse's palace is at the foot of a hill named Bothibelong. This is due to a royal decree that no-one except the seven war generals, the royal family and an elite group of warriors tasked with the duty of the sentinel in a bunker unobtrusively morphed into the rocks and trees on the
hill, is allowed on the hill.8i

Between the hill and the palace, there are training grounds for the warriors and a place for their barracks. As a humble resident moves east towards the palace away from Bothibelong beyond the training grounds, a vile onslaught of methane and other gases betraying the existence of cattle, horse, sheep, goat and other farm animals would assail and welcome them to the royal kraals.

Beyond the royal kraals, there is a very fine orchard. This splendid grove enjoys the shadow of Bothibelong at sun down and welcomes a somnolent guest to the den of the great lion king, Kgosi Ramotse.

A few degrees northeast of the palace about three fields away, an astounded traveller would come across a spherical clearing corralled with huge slanting motswere boles that crisscrossed each other, forming an impenetrable barrier around it. The name of this place is Kgotlaneng, which means place of the Lower Court according to the turnings of Bataung tongues.

The paramount uses for the Lower Court are royal proclamations and the occasional causes for celebrations. Whereas Kgotlagolo, meaning place of the High Court and Tlhabanong, loosely referred to as the war room, are within the royal grounds. The village market is a quick trot on your trusted steed southeast of Kgotlaneng.

The farming grounds are about four thousand and fifty heartbeats to the north of it. An extra five hundred and forty heartbeats should see paramount seekers among a coppice of huge
mopsinyugane trees.

As soon as this copse scatters, transient visitors would start to feel their legs go weary
due to the gradual rising of the earth into a hillock with only a few shrubs, knee-high grass and a handful of boulders on it. Beyond the peak of this knoll, is a brilliant view of the wonderful waters of Toloane River and the majestic Mt. Mpatshetlha beyond the river.

Toloane is a gentle serpentine giant with its tail in a lair on one of the snow-capped peaks of Mt Mogosane. The rumour is that Toloane's lair is home to an ancient hermit and Toloane's treacherous sister, Moretele River. Both embrace Meriting in their slithering south westerly flow.

Moretele is about five thousand three hundred and fifty heartbeats to the south of the royal palace. Her sister, Toloane blessed with serene pools and waterfalls, is the calmer tributary. Bodiba ba mantatai is the pool most favoured by Kgosi Ramotse's only son.

Not just for its proximity to the village but also because of the covert nature of the cave behind the waterfall and the two submerged caves. Pule enjoys swimming in this pool
or taking a nap in the cave behind the waterfall.

About fifteen days and fifteen nights' journey on horseback in a north easterly direction, vital emissaries and their swift mounts would come upon the five-pronged spear of Lowe with its white tips scintillating in the sun.

These are the very imposing five peaks of Mt. Mogosane, heavy with snow and aloof in stature. The highest of which is the abode of Matwetwe and his six companions, namely Nyasa and Nala the two playful leopard sisters, Dlendle the mountain lion, Ntsu the wise eagle, Ditshego the mischievous hyena, and Phika, the ancient; the ever gentle giant boa constrictor that rarely comes out of Matwetwe's cave.