198 CARAVAN TO OVAMPO LAND. [chap. vii. 



and wives mutually tell one another all they know. 

 Hence the married women of my party, whenever I 

 staid near a werft, had very soon made out all the 

 secrets of the inhabitants, which they retailed dkectly 

 to their husbands, and they to me. It was a system 

 of espionage which proved most effectual. A difi&cultj' 

 arising from women's gossipings had occurred at 

 Okamabuti, in which Chik behaved very well. My 

 man Kambanya told his wife, who told other wives, 

 who told their husbands, that the Ovampo intended to 

 rob and murder me as soon as I arrived in their 

 country. The story, by passing through so many 

 hands, had acquired several circumstantial details, 

 quite enough to make it worth inquiring into ; so I, 

 not knowing the origin of the tale, had Chik up in 

 judgment before me, and taxed him with what I had 

 heard. He protested his innocence ; and then I said 

 that to clear liimself he must investigate the report, 

 which he did in a most masterly manner ; and traced 

 the whole affair down to the unhappy Kambanya, who 

 had fabricated the story to chssuade me from going, 

 and from taking him to Ovampo-land, so Kambanya 

 was whipped, and my friendship with Chik cemented all 

 the stronger. 



May 2Srd. — We rode on six hours, to the second 

 place of rendezvous, Ootui, and there found aU the 

 Ovampo at their encampment, and parties of Damaras 

 under every bush; and as we travelled on next day, 

 I counted in our caravan 86 Damara women, nearly 

 half of whom had yelling babies on their backs, and 

 10 Damara men. Our party consisted of 14, and the 



