SEPT.] 
DAMARA COUNTRY. 
433 
Srd. Houdam — 4th. Soudamma, to the eastward — 
5th. Koop. The poor Damaras are called Gauw, 
and the rich Goomacha. The Damaras are a nume^ 
rous people in the estimation of the Namacquaas. 
Their chief amusement is dancing to music from a 
reed. They beat also on an instrument made of 
skin, resembling a drum. Oh such occasions they 
have their oxen collected, and dance before them, as 
the property they chiefly delight in. They instruct 
their children how to kill lions, and to make troughs 
of wood for their cattle to drink out of 
Marriage can hardly be said to exist among them. 
They take a woman and keep her till they are tired, 
or they fall out, or see another they like better. Cir- 
cumcision obtains among them. They also, like the 
Namacquaas, are afraid at the approach of death, but 
I could not learn the cause of their fear. They are 
kind to their friends in war, for if any of them be 
wounded, they carry them off the field. 
On the death of a rich man, they cover his grave 
with the horns and bones of the cattle he had killed 
when alive, as a proof, from their number, that 
he w^as rich. It is w^onderful that in every country 
riches attach more importance to the possessor than 
real worth or excellence, which proves the universal 
degeneracy of taste and wisdom. Riches cover a 
multitude of imperfections. While the worthy poor 
man is forgotten in a day, the unworthy rich is 
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