154 HOW TO MAKE SOAP. [chap. v. 



thrown upon his own resources. Our process of 

 making it took a week or ten days to complete. It was 

 as follows : the cook having saved as much fat as he 

 could from the meat, until his store accumulated to 

 half a hucket-full, or more, and a great quantity of 

 wood, or shrub-ashes, having been collected, those 

 plants alone being used whose ashes taste acrid, a 

 savage was set to work at making two very large clay 

 pots, which is an easy thing to do when proper clay 

 can be obtained ; in one of these we put the ashes, and 

 let water stand upon them ; in the other, under which 

 a fire-place was built, we placed the fat. A Damara of 

 sedentary disposition was then employed to superintend 

 the process to the end, he or she having simply to keep 

 up the fire under the grease-pot, and from time to time to 

 ladle into it a spoonfuU of the ash-water, or ley. This 

 ash-water is sucked up by the grease ; and in ten days 

 the stuff is transformed into good white soap. The 

 difficulty lies in selecting proper ashes. Those of 

 most plants make the soap too hard ; those of others 

 too soft ; but when the juste milieu is hit, all goes 

 on excellently. The missionaries have now brought 

 theu' soap -making to perfection ; they only use the 

 ashes of two plants, both of which grow in abimdance 

 near Otjimbingue ; and practice has taught them the 

 exact j)roportion in which they should be mixed to 

 make "a superior article." 



From the top of Omuvereoom, about Otjironjuba, 

 nothing but a wide bushy extent could be seen. The 

 brook sprang from several boggy spots, and fell in 

 pretty cascades down the hill. 



