XI WATER-CONSERVING TUBERS 209 



throughout all those great areas of South-Western 

 Africa where, owing to the scarcity of water, no 

 human beings other than a few scattered families of 

 wandering Bushmen can ever make their home. 



The belief is very general, both amongst white 

 and native hunters in South Africa, that giraffes 

 are capable of going for months at a time without 

 drinking, and the fact that they are to be found during 

 the driest season of the year in the most arid dis- 

 tricts, far away from any place where surface water 

 exists, lends colour to this belief. But yet it seems 

 to me impossible that an animal of the size of the 

 giraffe, which during the dry season is exposed day 

 after day to a sun-heat of 165° (Fahrenheit), and 

 which browses on leaves and twigs which at that 

 time of year contain but little moisture, can really 

 live for long periods without drinking. When hunt- 

 ing with Bushmen in the country to the south of 

 the Mababi river, which towards the end of the dry 

 season is quite waterless, my savage companions 

 would often halt suddenly on perceiving a certain 

 thin, grass-like leaf protruding from the ground, and 

 squatting down, commence digging vigorously with 

 their spears in the soft sandy soil. They would 

 presently unearth great white tubers — often as big 

 as a man's head — white in colour and looking some- 

 thing like very large turnips. These tubers contained 

 as much water as a juicy orange, and were, as the 

 Bushmen said, ''metsi hela" (that is, ''nothing but 

 water "). They told me, and I think with truth, that 

 they were able to live and hunt in the country where 

 these tubers grew without requiring water to drink. 

 They also informed me that elands, gemsbucks, and 

 other antelopes which live in the desert were in the 

 habit of pawing away the sand from and then eating 

 these tubers, which rendered them independent of 

 actual drinking water. There are probably other 

 water-conserving tubers, known to animals which 



