ONANIS TOBACCO AND HEMP. 89 



nodical stream hard hj, it was close on midnight before we 

 could think of refreshment or sleep. 



Onanis is the permanent residence of a kraal of very poor 

 Hill-Damaras,* who subsist chiefly upon the few wild roots 

 which their sterile neighborhood produces. Most of them, 

 however, manage to raise a little tobacco, for which they 

 have a perfect mania, and which, moreover, they value near- 

 ly as much as the necessaries of life. 



They also cultivate " dacka," or hemp, not, as with us, for 

 its fibre, but for the sake of the young leaves and seeds, which 

 they use as a substitute for tobacco, and which is of the most 

 intoxicating and injurious character. It not unfrequently 

 happens, indeed, that those who indulge too freely in the use 

 of this plant are aiFected by disease of the brain. 



The manner in which the Hill-Dam aras smoke is widely 

 different either from Hindu, Mussulman, or Christian. In- 

 stead of simply inhaling the smoke, and then immediately 

 letting it escape, either by the mouth or nostril, they siccdlow 

 it deliherately. The process is too singular to be passed over 

 without notice. 



niLL-DA:'.iAr.A pipe. 



A small quantity of water is put into a large horn — usu- 

 ally of a koodoo — three or four feet long. A short clay pipe, 

 filled either with tobacco or " dacka," is then introduced, 

 and fixed vertically into the side near the extremity of the 



* The proper name of these people is HaiiJcoin, which literally means 

 "real men," By the Namaquas they are styled Ghou-Damop or Da- 

 man — a term not sufficiently decorous for translation. The name Hill- 

 Damaras is that by which they are best known, and, being really very 

 appropriate to their habits and mode of living, I shall retain it through- 

 out the course of this narrative. 



