Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/98

 72 SOUTH AND E AST AFRICA. The chiefs, who in other respects enjoy very little personal authority, are held to be owners of all the cattle. According as they <>row rich, the number of their subjects increases with the increase of their herdt«, and as they become poor their subjects melt away from around thera. Thus the wealth of the chief constitutes the only bond of the tribe, although the Hereros have full consciousness of their common national origin. Hence the pcditical divisions are subject to constant change; but what never change arc the centres of jwpulution, the life of the tribe ever gravitating round about the watering-places of the herds. Like those of the petty Ova-Mbo kings, the domains of the several Ilerero rulers are separated one from the other by intervening tracts of scrub or rocks, neutral ground never encroached upon by the conterminous tribes except in case of invasion. But these dreaded border-lands form the camping-grounds of Hottentot or Bantu marauders, ever on the watch to carry o£E stray cattle. Amongst the Ilereros is also found a cattleless proletariate class, men un- attached to the fortunes of any rich owner of herds, and who live on the chase, or lead a roaming adventuresome existence. Such are the Ova-Tjimbas, kinsmen of the Ba-Simbas (Cimbebas), who camp for the most part in the north-eastern districts near the Ova-Mbos. On all points connected with the tenure of land, the practices are essentially communistic. The soil is absolutely unalienable, and the expulsion of the Catholic missionaries in 1879 must be attributed rather to their imprudent propositions regarding the purchase of land, than to the jealousy of their Protestant rivals. The Hereros are in any case well aware, from the example of Cape Colony, that wherever the whites gain a footing, the natives soon cease to rule the land. Nevertheless, with all their precautions, they cannot escape the fate in store for them. The Germans being henceforth their " protec- tors," thoy will be unable to refuse acceptance of the new laws of property, which will be so framed as to plunder them to the profit of the stranger. The Hill Damaras and Namaquas. The Ova-Zorotus, or " Highland Damaras," are so-named by the Boers to distinguish them from the " Damaras of the Plains." They comprise all those tribes which preserved their independence and took refuge on the summit of the plateaux, especially the isolated table mountains surrounded on all sides by steep escarpments. According to Galton these Damaras call themselves Hau Damop (" True Damaras "), or else Hau Khoin, " True Khoin," that is to say, Hottentots. But so far from belonging to this race, Galon regards them as akin to the Ova- Mbos, whom they still resemble in their physical appearance and social usages, although much deteriorated by misery and slavery. If most of them speak a Hottentot dialect, the fact should perhaps be attributed to their isolation in the midst of rulers of Khoin race. They now belong to other masters, thus fully justifying- the designation of Dama, which according to several writers has the meaning of " Vanquished " Of small size, weak and slender frame, and resembling the Bushmen, with whom