454 SOUTH-WEST PROTECTORATE NATIVE POPULATION. 



from Pella, De Tuin and Steinkopf , is very striking^ , and one 

 realises how mixed the coloured population is at Cape Town. 

 There is no possibility at Rehoboth of confusing- the stalwart 

 and often handsome bastard with the " Men of Men." To sum 

 up our remarks on the inhabitants and their habitats : from the 

 Orange to Windhuk is dry and rather forbidding after the 

 pleasant places of the Western Colony. This is Great Namaqua- 

 land, inhabited by the Hottentots (thinly towards the coast), and 

 by the Bastards round Rehoboth, some sixty miles south of the 

 capital. Beyond this and northward to the 19th Parallel lies 

 Damaraland with the fierero in the plains and the Berg- Damara 

 in the hills. This delightful district, green and varied, is backed 

 by magnificent ranges and massifs (like Erongo, justly so named 

 " the fine great place "), of which a wide view may be had from 

 the square tower the Germans put up at Omaruru. to commemo- 

 rate the Herero rebellion, or rather its ruthless quelling. Especi- 

 ally beautiful, northward of this point, was the country in 

 January, reminding one constantly of the park-like land on the 

 rrainland opposite Zanzibar. I shall long remember a delightful 

 trek I made in the company of congenial companions, thanks to 

 the courtesy of the Magistrate at Tsumeb. We bivouacked for 

 the night not far from where five leopards besieged a cart not 

 long ago. At Grootfontein, the site of Jordaan's Republic of ill 

 fate and short life, I was privileged to interview some Kalahari 

 Bushmen who had been committed for murder. The poor things 

 were trembling visibly, and seemed to think I was come to execute 

 them. When, however, they were only required to name their 

 head, eyes, hands, feet, etc., smiles appeared. Some physical 

 anthropologists known to Cape T^^ivn had recently visited them, 

 but had, I was told, no interpreter, and hence perhaps inspired 

 the terror which greeted me. I was more fortunate in the service 

 cf a Hottentot woman who partly understood their dialect, but 

 my success deserted me as soon as I left the concrete. I should 

 mention that these so-called Bushmen are by no means diminu- 

 tive. One was an exceedingly tall man, very light in complexion. 

 It is well known that the Kalahari Bushmen are often full size. 

 For those philologically interested, I append a vocabulary. 

 (Appendix L) Lions still occur in this district, especially at 

 Namatoni. near Etosha-Pan. The flat plain was once a lake, 

 and, in the wet season, still contrives to be largely a swamp. 

 All success, all possible success, to Professor Schwarz in his 

 scheme for making the desert rejoice, by the re-flooding of 

 Etosha, Ngami, etc., if he only does it thoroughly enough to 

 save us from expanded swamp. To the north again is Ovambo- 

 land, which really lies on both sides of the Portuguese bordfi-, 

 hence the punitive expedition on the rebellion of Mandume. 

 who could not understand how strangers could part their land 

 by running a straight line through, in the form of a parallel of 

 latitude. 



