CHAP. IV.] AND WATER OXEN. 109 



else they stopped working, in order to eat it at once. 

 Usually we had to slaughter sometliing. The waggon- 

 driver and the men's cook generally killed the sheep ; 

 if an ox was wanted I shot him. Thus a great many 

 different things were goiug on at the same time : the 

 men were digging wells, slaughtering and cutting up, 

 cooking at two fires ; the Damaras were watching 

 cattle, cutting thorn-bushes, and carrying firewood. 

 When the wells were deepened sufficiently, a hollow 

 trough was scooped out in the sand, and a piece of 

 canvass laid on it ; the oxen were then sent for ; and 

 while Damaras stood in the well with a wooden 

 " bamboose," a sort of bucket, ladling out water into 

 the canvass, the oxen were driven up by threes to 

 drink. But unless the ground is very porous the 

 canvass sheet is hardly necessary. In this way one 

 gives drink at the rate of about an ox a minute at each 

 well — and sheep drink very fast indeed ; it seldom 

 required an hour to water my herd after the wells were 

 once cleared out. 



The thorn-branches for the kraal are laid round a 

 circle, each alongside the other, in the direction of 

 radii : the cut ends are inwards, and the broad bushy 

 heads, not the sides of the branch, make the outer cir- 

 cumference. Sheep and goats pack into so small a 

 space, that their kraal has never to be more than 

 twenty feet diameter; but they must have one, or 

 else every kind of accident would occur, for they are by 

 no means so domestic as oxen, and very stupid. If it 

 were not for a kraal the hyenas, who serenade us every 

 night, would be sure to do constant mischief, and 



