228 ^ SLAVES NUMERALS DOBIESTIC ANIMALS. 



The Damaras are idle creatures. What is not done by 

 the women is left to the slaves, who are either descendants 

 of impoverished members of their own tribe (is not this an- 

 other approach to civilization f) or captured Bushmen. The 

 former are seized upon when children, and mostly employed 

 as herdsmen. 



The Damaras have numerals up to a hundred ; notwith- 

 standing which, they are sorely puzzled should the sum ex- 

 ceed the number of fingers. They count like bad poets, who 

 settle their metre by their digits. It is a most amusing 

 sight to witness a group trying to reckon a dozen head of 

 cattle. 



Though they give names to many of the heavenly bodies, 

 they have a very absurd conception of their character, rota- 

 tory motion, and so forth. Thus many imagine that the 

 sun which sets at night is different from that which rises in 

 the morning. Like the children who wondered what was 

 done with the old moons, perhaps these savages are equally 

 perplexed to ascertain what becomes of the old suns. 



The domestic animals indigenous to the country are oxen, 

 sheep, and dogs. The latter greatly resemble those men- 

 tioned as existing among the. Namaquas, but, be it said to 

 the honor of the Damaras, they take much more care of these 

 associates and companions of man than their southern neigh- 

 bors. Indeed, I have known them to pay as much as two 

 fine oxen for a dog. 



Of the Damara cattle I shall have occasion to speak here- 

 after. The sheep are (or rather were) plentiful, and the 

 mutton is by no means bad. Though somewhat spare-look- 

 ing, they furnish good joints when cut up. Skin and offcd 

 included, they not unfrequently w^eigh 100 pounds, and some- 

 times as much as 110 to 120 pounds. They have large tails, 

 like those of the Cape Colony, but they do not arrive at such 

 a formidable size. They have no wool, but a kind of short, 

 glossy hair, lying close to the skin, covers the body. The 



