We Came Upon A Man And His Two Wives And Children,
Burning Coarse Rushes And The Stalks Of Tsitla, Growing In A Brackish Marsh,
In Order To Extract A Kind Of Salt From The Ashes.
They make
a funnel of branches of trees, and line it with grass rope,
twisted round until it is,
As it were, a beehive-roof inverted.
The ashes are put into water, in a calabash, and then it is allowed
to percolate through the small hole in the bottom and through the grass.
When this water is evaporated in the sun, it yields sufficient salt
to form a relish with food. The women and children fled with precipitation,
but we sat down at a distance, and allowed the man time to gain
courage enough to speak. He, however, trembled excessively
at the apparition before him; but when we explained that our object
was to hunt game, and not men, he became calm, and called back his wives.
We soon afterward came to another party on the same errand with ourselves.
The man had a bow about six feet long, and iron-headed arrows about
thirty inches in length; he had also wooden arrows neatly barbed, to shoot
in cases where he might not be quite certain of recovering them again.
We soon afterward got a zebra, and gave our hunting acquaintances
such a liberal share that we soon became friends. All whom we saw that day
then came with us to the encampment to beg a little meat;
and as they have so little salt, I have no doubt they felt grateful
for what we gave.
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