THE MELON OF THE KALAHARI DESERT 27 
During the long dry season, the sama forms the mainspring 
of life in the Kalahari. Upon it not only the game but the 
bushmen and the herds of cattle of the Bechuanas subsist 
to a great extent and in some places entirely, for it supplies 
both water and food. The species of game which I know to 
rely entirely upon sama are Oryx and Eland, for I have seen 
them in places where there was no water obtainable within a 
hundred miles in any direction, and I have found the stomachs 
of Oryx entirely filled with sama. Greater Kudu eat it readily, 
but I believe are generally, not entirely, out of reach of water. 
Hartebeeste and Wildebeeste I have also seen at great distances 
from water in places where there was plenty of sama. It is 
eaten by cheetahs and jackals and numerous small birds. The 
bushmen burn the grass and then collect great numbers of 
the melons which are thus exposed to view. They eat them in 
several ways. Generally they cut them up into strips and dry 
them on the bushes and afterwards boil them up into a paste. 
They eat them raw and they also collect the seeds and roast 
them and then grind them up into a porridge. It is a diet 
upon which human beings cannot exist without some training, 
for, being of a very low order of nutriment, it is necessary to 
consume enormous quantities, and the figures of the bushmen 
during the time they are feeding upon sama bear very evident 
witness to this fact in their abnormally protruding stomachs. 
The melons, I have been told, remain intact on the ground 
for as long as two years, but I think they must be useless as 
a water-supply after about ten months, for they have by then 
become woolly and lost much of their moisture. 
I have been fortunate enough to make two expeditions 
into the Kalahari and had ample opportunity of observing 
the phenomenon of this wonderful provision of Nature. 
On the second occasion I took a wagon and eighteen oxen 
and two horses across to the German border and up through 
the desert to Lake Ngami. The oxen, although not accustomed 
like those which live in the desert to eating sama, were able 
to thrive for long periods without water, living entirely on 
the sama. After very little difficulty the horses were taught 
to eat it, and on one occasion on arrival at water, after a long 
trek of ten days through waterless country in which sama had 
