EETCKN TO EIKHAMS VISIT KACHAMAHA. 287 



or melon, is also found in great abundance about Rehoboth. 

 When ripe, this fruit is collected by the natives, dried, and 

 stored away for seasons of scarcity. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



Return to Eikhams. — Ugly Fall. — Splendid Landscape. — Jonker's De- 

 linquencies, — How to manage the Natives. — The Ondara. — It kills a 

 Man. — How his Comrade revenges him. — Medical Properties of the 

 Ondara.— The Cockatrice.— The Cohra di Capella.— The Puff-ad- 

 der. — The Spitting Snake. — The Black Snake. — Few Deaths caused 

 by Snakes. — Antidotes for Snake-bites. — Return to Rehoboth. 



Leaving Plans in charge of the men and cattle, I posted 

 back to Eikhams, a distance of about sixty miles, in the hope 

 of recovering our "debt from Jonker ; but he had not yet re- 

 turned. By this time, however, I received positive informa- 

 tion that he and his people were engaged in a cattle-lifting 

 foray. To enable me to acquire full details of their proceed- 

 ings, I set off for Barmen, the head-quarter for information 

 as respects Damara-land. Here fugitives arrived daily, bring- 

 ing tidings of plunder and bloodshed. I felt grieved and an- 

 gry at Jonker's outrageous behavior. Only a year before he 

 had most solemnly promised Mr. Galton never again to mo- 

 lest the Damaras. 



Hearing that Kachamaha, the most powerful chief in the 

 country since the death of Kahichene, resided not far from 

 liarmen, and that he had been a severe sufferer by the depre- 

 dations of the Xamaquas, I determined to visit him, with a 

 view of ascertaining the extent of his own and his country- 

 men's losses. 



I found Kachamaha's kraal on the steep banks of a peri- 

 odical stream, one of the largest tributaries of the Swakop. 

 The situation was most picturesque. The wonderful luxu- 

 riance of the vegetation, and extreme beauty of the landscape 

 at this season, the thousands of cattle crowding the verdant 



