Chap. II. FEMALE WATER-SUCKERS. 37 



They have thin legs and arms, and large protruding abdo- 

 mens, caused by the coarse indigestible food they eat. 'Their 

 children's eyes lack lustre. I never saw them at play. A few 

 Bechuanas may go into a village of Bakalahari, and domineer 

 over the whole with impunity ; but when these same adven- 

 turers meet the Bushmen, they are fain to change their 

 manners to fawning sycophancy. They know that, if the 

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

 may settle the point by a poisoned arrow. 



The dread of visits from Bechuanas of strange tribes causes 

 the Bakalahari to reside far from water ; and they not unfre- 

 quently hide their supplies by filling the pits with sand and 

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

 the women come with a bag or net on their backs, in which 

 are twenty or thirty ostrich egg-shells, with a hole in the end 

 of each of the size of a finger. Tying a bunch of grass to one 

 end of a reed about two feet long, they insert it in a hole dug 

 as deep as the arm will reach, and ram the wet sand firmly 

 round it. The grass absorbs the water, which is then sucked 

 up by the woman through the reed. A straw goes from her 

 mouth to one of the egg-shells on the ground, and, as she 

 draws mouthful after mouthful from below, she makes the 

 water trickle along the outside of the straw into the shell. I 

 have visited villages where, had we acted a domineering part 

 and rummaged every hut, we should have found nothing ; 

 but by waiting with patience the people were led to form a 

 favourable opinion of us, and would bring out a shellful of 

 the precious fluid. (6) 



Besides supporting multitudes of animals, the so-called 

 Desert contributes something to the market of the world, and 

 has proved a refuge to many a fugitive tribe when their lands 

 were overrun by the tribe of true Caffres 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. One of the Bangwaketze chiefs, more wily than 

 the rest, sent false guides to lead them on a track where, for 

 hundreds of miles, not a drop of water could be found, and 

 they were parched to death in consequence. Many of the 

 Bakwains themselves sunk under the privation, and their old 



