CHAP. VI.] PRONUNCIATION OF THE LETTER L. 181 



in a slow singing manner. It seems nothing but L's, 

 which is curious, as the Damaras do not possess that 

 letter and cannot pronounce it. It is odd enough that 

 Damara children, who say L as all other children do 

 when they try to pronounce E, should as they grow 

 older reverse matters, and forgetting how to pronounce 

 the L, always say R instead of it ; thus Mr. Kolbe's 

 name was changed to Korube ; my man, whom we 

 nick-named Bill, was called by the Damaras "Biro." 

 They took infinite pains to master my name, which 

 after various transformations settled into Bortonio — 

 the " io " being an affectionately diminutive affix. 

 Andersson's name was too full of consonants for them ; 

 they gave it up in despair, and called him Kabandera, 

 (the bird-killer). Many of the Ovampo and Damara 

 words are much alike ; thus if you say " bring fire," it 

 is " et omuriro " in Damara, " ella omuHloo " in 

 Ovampo. 



The Ovampo way of encamping is very characteristic, 

 for they do not sleep by the side of a large burning 

 log of wood, but instead of that go to great pains in 

 collecting stones about the size of bricks, and make 

 two or three rows of small fires, perhaps five in each 

 row, placing the stones round each of them in a rude 

 circle of two feet diameter, so as to confine the ashes 

 and keep the brands from falling about ; then they lie 

 down and go to sleep between the fire-j^laces. They 

 arrange these encampments with great regulaiity, and 

 the plan of them is certainly a good one in countries 

 where there may be a sufficiency of dry sticks and 

 brush, but no large firewood ; for by keeping up the 



