CHAP. IV.] GHOU DAMUP HUTS. 103 



would not grasp the rock, and if I had tumbled I 

 should have explored much more of the mountain than 

 I desired. The measurement of these slabs is not in 

 feet but in hundreds of feet. Once on the top, the air 

 was deliciously cool, and the boulders strewn about 

 gave skade to sit under when we pleased. Leopards 

 are very numerous here ; they have nothing wUd to feed 

 on except baboons and steiuboks — ^however the Ghou 

 Damup have plenty of sheep and goats, and these the 

 leopards attack. The summit of Erongo is a succession 

 of ravines clothed with thorn-coppice, and a great deal 

 of cactus ; the effect is pretty, and I should much Hke 

 to hve there for summer quarters. Along the ravines, 

 a few wild fig-trees grow. After a couple of hours of 

 up and down walking, in which we started a magnificent 

 leopard, we arrived at the chiefs werft, and I liked its 

 situation and effect very much, — it was not in the open 

 flat, like those of the Damaras, who fear the neigh- 

 bourhood of any cover which might conceal an advancing 

 enemy, but among trees. It was also built more 

 durably. The Damara huts have but one room ; they 

 are like those I described at Walfisch Bay ; these were 

 rather complicated. The frame-work of the hut was 

 generally made by growing trees, a clump of which 

 was selected and their lower branches thinned ; then 

 the tops were bent down and pleached together ; the 

 trees in the middle dividing the huts into two or even 

 three rooms. The shape on the outside was like a 

 snail-sheU, the entrance faced to the leeward. Going 

 into the chief's hut, the entrance led straight into the 

 main apartment, on either side of which were rooms, 



