CHAP. VI.] DAMARAS NEVER EAT IT. 183 



meat and coffee, the latter of which, after a certain 

 degree of "condition " has been obtained, is also a very 

 unnecessary superfluity, and one that I could at any 

 time abandon without regret. The Namaquas occa- 

 sionally use salt, but they set no store upon it. There 

 is no doubt that people who live on meat and milk 

 would require salt much less than those who live on 

 vegetables, but half the Damaras subsist simply on 

 pig-nuts, — the most worthless and indigestible of food, 

 and requiring to be eaten in excessive quantities to 

 afford enough nourishment to support life. The 

 Hottentots by Walfisch Bay, who live almost entirely 

 on the 'nara gourd, and who have the sea on one side 

 and salt springs in front of them, hardly ever take tlie 

 trouble to collect salt, which they certainly would do if 

 they felt that craving for it which distresses many 

 Europeans, The last fact that I have to mention witli 

 reference to salt, is that the game in the Swakop do 

 not frequent the salt rocks to lick them, as they do in 

 America. I visited these salt rocks (below Oosop) 

 when there had been plenty of game about, and when 

 the spoors of a month old were perfectly distinct, yet 

 no tracks led to the salt which hung down like 

 stalactites from the rock, from one to twenty feet 

 above the ground, at a place where a small brack- 

 spring dribbles over it, and which was perfectly 

 accessible, and in full view.* 



The Ovampo were very quiet and sociable ; they 

 always seemed to make a point of giving orders in a 



* I am informed that certain New Zealand tribes not only eat without 

 salt, but actually look upon it with distaste and aversion. 



