,--the name is derived from their verb "to call" (cf.
[Greek: ekklesia])--which in several points recalls the _agora_, or
assembly of freemen described in the Homeric poems. The Paramount Chief
presides, and debate is mainly conducted by the chiefs; but all freemen,
gentle and simple, have a right to speak in it. There is no voting, only
a declaration, by shouts, of the general feeling. Though the head of the
nation has been usually the person who convokes it, a magnate lower in
rank might always, like Achilles in the Iliad, have it summoned when a
fitting occasion arose. And it was generally preceded by a consultation
among the leading men, though I could not discover that there was any
regular council of chiefs.[68] In all these points the resemblance to
the primary assemblies of the early peoples of Europe is close enough to
add another to the arguments, already strong, which discredit the theory
that there is any such thing as an "Aryan type" of institutions, and
which suggest the view that in studying the polities of primitive
nations we must not take affinities of language as the basis of a
classification.

To-day the Pitso has lost much of its old importance, and tends to
become a formal meeting, in which the British Commissioner causes new
regulations to be read aloud, inviting discussion on points which any
one present may desire to raise, and addresses the people, awarding
praise or blame, and adding such exhortations as he thinks seasonable.
The missionaries (like the Bishops in a Witenagemot) and the chief
British officials are usually present. In perusing the shorthand report
of the great Pitso held in 1879, at which the question of disarmament
was brought forward by the Cape Prime Minister, I was struck by the
freedom and intelligence with which the speakers delivered their views.
One observed: "This is our parliament, though it is a very disorderly
parliament, because we are all mixed up, young and old; and we cannot
accept any measure without discussion." Another commented severely upon
an unhappy phrase that had been used at Cape Town by a member of the
Cape Government: "Mr. U. said the Basutos were the natural enemies of
the white man, because we were black. Is that language which should be
used by a high officer of the Government? Let sentiments like these pass
away--we are being educated to believe that all people are equal, and
feel that sentiments like these are utterly wrong." A third claimed that