CHAP. X.] MAKE AN ATTACK ON TWO WERFTS. 291 



prematurely; almost every Damara was off helter- 

 skelter. We caught a few women and one man ; they 

 said that Kaipanga, the chief, whom we were in search 

 of, was at another werft close by ; that he had killed 

 the ox and his men had eaten it, and that if we would 

 spare them and not kill them they would show us the 

 way. All this questioning and answering took Httle 

 more time to say than it does to read, and we were 

 off again, but the daylight had become quite strong, 

 and before we were at the next werft the sun was 

 about to rise. "We could not hope to encircle it, so 

 we ran crouching tlu^ough the bushes on and into 

 it with much better success than we could have 

 expected. The Damaras were not half a minute out of 

 it when we arrived, and were running in all directions. 

 The country was rather open, and there was a mound 

 close by, to the top of which some of our men ran 

 directly. This acted like flying a kite over a moor ; 

 it made all the runaway Damaras lie still at once, lest 

 they should be seen, and in this way we gained time 

 to examine their werft for proofs of guilt, and were able 

 to spoor them more leisurely. "We found no meat in 

 the huts, but a broken marrow-bone was there. In 

 the main hut was a large piece of ox-hide, half 

 dressed, from which the hairs, as usual, had been 

 removed ; we took it out to the light ; a few scattered 

 hairs remamed, and they were whitish-yellow, which 

 was Timmerman's peculiar colour. A woman who 

 was found in the werft confessed to the skin, and away 

 we went in chase as before. The huts were such 

 wretched affau-s that it was not worth while to destroy 



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