114 DESCRIPTION OF THE DESERT. 
Additional Information respecting the Great 
Southern Zahara, [or Desert^ obtained from J. 
Hendric, a native Teacher, who had travelled 
over part of its western side, parallel to Great 
Namaqnaland. 
WHEREVER Hendric went he found the de- 
sert covered with sand, and the surface seldom 
perfectly level, but consisting of swells or low 
risings, and between these, or in the hollows, 
the ground was thinly strewed with tufts of 
withered grass. No trees were to be seen, but 
sometimes a few sickly bushes made their ap- 
pearance. He found, however, that kind of fruit 
which may be termed the friend of the desert, 
growing in great abundance. This is the wild 
water-melon, which, though most nauseous to the 
delicate taste of Europeans, is a precious morsel to 
the half-famished and solitary beings of Zahara. 
The watery part satisfies the thirst, and the seed, 
of which it is full, serves for food. In cooking it, 
the inhabitants generally cut it open, pick out 
the seed, which they roast and eat, then boiling 
what remains, they pour off the water into a 
vessel, and after eating the thick substance left 
in the pot, they preserve or drink the water when 
it has become cool. They have aho another 
