Chap. H. FEMALE WATER-SUCKERS. 51 



request for tobacco is refused, these free sons of the Desert may- 

 settle the point as to its possession by a poisoned arrow. 



The dread of visits from Bechuanas of strange tribes causes the 

 Bakalahari to choose their residences far from water ; and they 

 not unfrequently hide then supplies by filling the pits with sand 

 and making a fire over the spot. When they wish to draw water 

 for use, the women come with twenty or thirty of their water- 

 vessels in a bag or net on their backs. These water- vessels consist 

 of ostrich egg-shells, with a hole in the end of each, such as would 

 admit one's finger. The women tie a bunch of grass to one end 

 of a reed about two feet long, and insert it in a hole dug as deep 

 as the arm will reach ; then ram down the wet sand firmly round 

 it. Applying the mouth to the free end of the reed, they form a 

 vacuum in the grass beneath, in which the water collects, and hi 

 a short time rises into the mouth. An egg-shell is placed on the 

 ground alongside the reed, some inches below the mouth of the 

 sucker. A straw guides the water into the hole of the vessel, as 

 she draws mouthful after mouthful from below. The water is 

 made to pass along the outside, not through the straw. If any- 

 one will attempt to squirt water into a bottle placed some distance 

 below his mouth, he will soon perceive the wisdom of the Bush- 

 woman's contrivance for giving the stream direction by means of 

 a straw. The whole stock of water is thus passed through the 

 woman's mouth as a pump, and when taken home is carefully 

 buried. I have come into villages where, had we acted a domi- 

 neering part, and rummaged every hut, we should have found 

 nothing ; but by sitting down quietly and waiting with patience 

 until the villagers were led to form a favourable opinion of us, 

 a woman would bring out a shellful of the precious fluid from 

 I know not where. 



The so-called Desert, it may be observed, is by no means a 

 useless tract of country. Besides supporting multitudes of both 

 small and large animals, it sends something to the market of the 

 world, and has proved a refuge to many a fugitive tribe — to the 

 Bakalahari first, and to the other Bechuanas in turn — as their 

 lands were overrun by the tribe of true Cafires, called Matebele. 

 The Bakwains, the Bangwaketze, and the Bamangwato all fled 

 thither ; and the Matebele marauders, who came from the well- 

 watered east, perished by hundreds in their attempts to follow them. 



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