Page:Lake Ngami.djvu/182

174 people invariably made use of salt with their food, a thing never seen among the Damaras. As soon as their plain meal was finished, pipes—of their own manufacture—were produced, and, after a few whiffs, a song was struck up. One man began to chant, and the whole party joined occasionally in chorus. Though somewhat monotonous, the music was not unpleasing.

They were armed with bow and arrows, the assegai and the knob kierie; but the two first-named weapons were of smaller dimensions than those used by the Damaras. Their bows, moreover, were constructed from a kind of wood called mohama, which, in its natural state, is flat on one side, and thus, in a degree, of the required form.

The arrows are generally tipped with bone or iron; but they do not often poison them. They carry their quivers under the left arm by means of a strap across the right shoulder. In addition to the weapons mentioned, they have a dagger, protected by a leather sheath tastefully ornamented with thin copper wire.



Carpenter's work is not much practiced among the Ovambo. The rude hatchet here represented is nearly the only mechanic's tool I remember to have seen in their possession.