322 BARBAROUS PRACTICE NAMAQUAS LONG-LIVED. 



practice prevailed of leaving old and disabled people to per- 

 ish far away from the dwellings of men. A slight fence was 

 raised round the " living-dead," and a small supply of water 

 was placed at his side, when he was abandoned to his fate. 

 Mr. Moffat, during his wanderings in Namaqua-land, saw one 

 of these wretches (a woman), and on inquiring the cause of 

 her being thus deserted, she replied, " I am old, you see, and 

 no longer able to serve them (referring to her grown-up chil = 

 dren). When they kill game, I am too feeble to help in car- 

 rying home the flesh ; I am incapable of gathering wood to 

 make fire ; and I can not carry their children on my back, as 

 I used to do." 



The Namaquas may be said to be long-lived, for individ- 

 uals have been known to reach the advanced age of ninety, 

 and even one hundred years. This is the. more remarkable, 

 when the very wretched Hfe they lead is taken into consid- 

 eration. 



The Namaquas have a singular custom both among them- 

 selves and with regard to strangers, which consists in the 

 adoption of a " father" and a " mother." This practice is so 

 widely observed, that few who come in contact with the sev- 

 eral tribes are able to avoid it. Almost every European 

 trader, indeed, possesses in each village which he is in the 

 habit of frequenting either a so-called "father" or "mother." 

 But the custom is a most inconvenient one, to the traveler at 

 least, for he may be pretty sure that, as soon as this near de- 

 gree of consanguinity is established between himself and a 

 Namaqua, he will be asked for a horse or an ox, or it may 

 be for the very coat upon his back, which, as in duty bound, 

 he is expected to hand over to " papa" or " mamma," as the 

 case may be. The poor son, it is true, has also the privilege 

 of demanding any thing that may captivate his fancy ; but 

 since a native is usually more forward and importunate than 

 a European, the bargain, as a rule, is generally a losing one 

 to the latter. 



