42 FEMALE WATER-SUCKERS. 



Australia. They have thin legs and arms, and large 

 protruding abdomens 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 adventurers 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 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 their 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 in 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 Bushwoman'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 

 domineering 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 



