Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/99

 in some places they are confounded, they live by cultivating the land, which gives them but poor returns for their labour. Some of their tribes are grouped round the missions; but the majority are enslaved to the stockbreeders, squatting round about the grazing grounds. They are variously estimated at from thirty thousand to forty thousand souls; but on this point differences of opinion necessarily prevail, owing to the fact that many tribes of doubtful origin are regarded as belonging to other races. The Hill Damaras have the musical faculty developed to an extraordinary degree. They sing in concert with well attuned voice and in perfect harmony.

The Namaquas (Nama-Kwa), that is, "Nama People," occupy nearly all the southern section of the German Protectorate south of the Tsoakhub and Kuisip rivers. One of their divisions, known as the "Little Namaquas," is even stationed to the south of the Lower Orange, and the territory inhabited by them has become an integral part of Cape Colony, But all alike are thinly scattered over a vast waterless region, and towards the middle of the present century numbered scarcely more than fifty thousand altogether, a feeble remnant of the many hundred thousand Namas who are said to have formerly lived in South Africa. According to Palgrave, they are now reduced to about