CHAP. VI.] HUTS AND FINERY. 191 



do all they can to expedite his death, and when lie 

 appears to be dying, they heap ox-hides over him till he 

 is suffocated. Very few Damaras die a natural death. 



The huts are wretched affairs — I have already slightly 

 described them — the women are the builders. They 

 first cut a number of sticks eight or nine feet high, and 

 also strip off quantities of bark from the trees which 

 they shred and use as string ; holes are then " crowed " 

 in a circle of eight or ten feet across, in wliich the 

 sticks are planted upright, their tops are next bent 

 together and pleached and lashed with the bark shreds 

 — this makes the framework ; roimd about it brush- 

 wood is woven and tied until the whole assumes a 

 comi:>act surface ; a hole for a door three feet by two, is 

 left in one side, and a forked prop is placed in the 

 middle of the hut to support the roof; the whole is 

 then daubed and plastered over, and the work is 

 completed. As the roof becomes dried and cracked 

 with the heat of the fire, and indeed as it generally has 

 a hole in it for a chimney, the Damaras lay old ox- 

 hides on the outside upon its top, weighting them with 

 stones that they may not be blown off; these they draw 

 aside when they want ventilation, but pull them over 

 at night when they wish to make aU snug. The 

 furniture of the hut consists of a couple of ox-hides 

 for lying and sitting on, three or four wooden vessels, 

 a clay .cooking pot, a bag of pignuts, a leathern box 

 containmg a little finery, such as red iron earth to 

 colour themselves with, and a small skin of grease. 

 There may perhaps be an iron knife and a wood 

 chopper ; everything else is worn on the persons, or 



