2 LECTURE I. 



Europeans passing through their country. In the southern 

 part of Africa lies the great Kalahari desert 1 , not so called 

 as being a mere sandy plain, devoid of vegetation : such a 

 desert I never saw until I got between Suez and Cairo. 

 Kalahari is called a desert because it contains no streams, 

 and water is obtained only from deep wells. The reason 

 why so little rain falls on this extensive plain, is, because 

 the winds prevailing over the greater part of the interior 

 country are easterly, with a little southing. The moisture 

 taken up by the atmosphere from the Indian Ocean is 

 deposited on the eastern hilly slope; and when the mov- 

 ing mass of air reaches its greatest elevation, it is then 

 on the verge of the great valley, or, as in the case of the 

 Kalahari, the great heated inland plains there meeting 

 with the rarefied air of that hot, dry surface, the ascend- 

 ing heat gives it greater capacity for retaining all its re- 

 maining humidity, and few showers can be given to the 

 middle and western lands in consequence of the increased 

 hygrometric power. (See Travels, p. 95.) The people 

 living there, not knowing the physical reasons why they 

 have so little rain, are in the habit of sending to the 

 mountains on the east for rain-makers, in whose power of 

 making rain they have a firm belief 2 . They say the 



1 For an account of this desert, see Appendix, page 64. 



2 E.ain-makers are a numerous race in Southern Africa; and rain- 

 making is an inveterate prejudice in the minds of large numbers of 

 people. At pages 10 — 25 of the book of Travels is given an amusing, yet 

 pathetic, account of this quackery among the Bakwains. These people 

 try to help themselves to rain by a variety of preparations, such as char- 



OSI. 



