«EPT.] GREAT NAMACQUA COUNTRY. 4,29 
sign that sickness is coming upon their cattle, and to 
escape it they will immediately drive them to some 
other parts of the country. They call out to the star 
how many cattle they have, and beg of it not to send 
sickness. It is very rare for a Namacqua to leave his 
own country, even on a temporary visit to another^ 
Their population has been reduced by the wars of 
former times, and by broils among themselves. Their 
wars generally originate in disputes about cattle, in 
which consists their chief wealth, and frequently in one 
tribe boasting of its superiority to another, which rous- 
ing the pride and rage of the party insulted, they fly 
to arms merely to ascertain which tribe is strongest. 
Their object in war is to rob each other of their catde, 
and this gives rise to their fighting; of course, their 
battles are always in the vicinity of their cattle kraals. 
They take prisoners from each other, some of whom at 
the conclusion of the war are killed, and others libe- 
rated. Some of the Great Namacquas have travelled 
las far as Cape-town, have wondered at what they saw 
there, but none have ever attempted to imitate any thing 
which they saw, for they have no ambition to differ in 
any thing from the manners and customs of their fore- 
fathers. 
Their principal method of killing game is, by a 
whole kraal or town turning out and forming them- 
selves into a circle, surrounding the ground where 
Jhe game is expected, then contracting the circle till 
